Vietnamese rowing duo Đinh Thị Hảo and Lường Thị Thảo compete in the Tokyo 2020 women's pair repechage of lightweight double sculls at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Japan Sunday morning. — Photo screenshot

Olympics

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese rowing duo Đinh Thị Hảo and Lường Thị Thảo finished fifth in the Tokyo 2020 women's pair repechage of the lightweight double sculls at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday morning.

The Vietnamese pair competed against Switzerland, Russia, Ireland, Austria and Guatemala. As a rule, the leading three teams will advance to the semi-finals of Group A/B and the last three finalists will enter Group C.

Vietnamese rowers completed their race with a time of 7:53.69, 30 seconds outside of the top three. This result put Việt Nam into the final of Group C which will compete for ranking and not a medal position.

Earlier, Vietnamese rowing duo only finished fourth in the qualifying round with a time of 7:36.21 so they had to take part in a repechage to vie for a berth in the semi-final.

Việt Nam won the ticket to the Tokyo Olympics after qualifying for the Asia-Pacific region in Japan in early May in which Việt Nam clocked a time of 7:17.34 to rank second of the qualifier.

This is the third Olympic event of Vietnamese rowers. Athletes competed in the women’s lightweight double. At London 2012 and Rio 2016, Vietnamese rowers could only enter the finals of group C.

In judo, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thuỷ lost to arch rival Andreea Chitu of Romania 0-10 in the qualifying round of the women’s 52kg category. Chitu took part in the Olympics 2012 and 2016, she also won silver medals in the world event in 2014 and 2015.

Vietnamese athletes will continue to play in the weightlifting, boxing and badminton event on Sunday. VNS