All but 2 Vietnamese athletes eliminated from Paris Olympics

Nguyen Thi That finished 73rd out of 92 athletes in the women’s 158km road cycling event on Sunday, leaving Vietnam with only two athletes left in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

As of Monday, only Trinh Van Vinh in weightlifting and Nguyen Thi Huong in canoeing remain to represent Vietnam at the Games, while 14 other Vietnamese competitors have been eliminated.

Vinh will compete with 11 other athletes for a medal in the men’s 61kg event on Aug. 7. Huong will compete in the C-1 200m event on Aug. 8.

That was the first Vietnamese athlete to win a ticket to the games, and was considered one of the biggest hopes of Vietnam at the event.

However, she was unable to make a breakthrough, facing many strong opponents despite a strong start and even made into the top three after the first 20 km.

After about 50 km, That caught up with the first place at that time, Slovakia’s Nora Jencusova. She then tried to maintain her position in the leading group until about two-thirds of the course.

Eventually, That finished 73rd with a time of 4 hours 10 minutes and 47 seconds. The gold medal went to Faulkner Kristen of the U.S. with 3 hours 59 minutes and 23 seconds. Vos Marianne of the Netherlands won the silver medal while Belgium’s Kopecky Lotte clinched bronze.

Vietnam sent 16 athletes to the Paris Olympics, which lasts from July 26 to Aug. 11, to compete in cycling, swimming, athletics, shooting, weightlifting, canoeing, rowing, badminton, boxing, archery, and Judo.

By Hoang Nguyen & Hong Duy – VnExpress.net -August 5, 2024