Vietnam wins two bronzes on Asiad day one

Vietnam's first medal in this year's Asiad was won in Taekwondo, as trio Nguyen Thien Phung, Tran Tien Khoa and Le Thanh Trung settled for the men's team poomsae third place following their semi-final loss to the Republic of Korea (RoK) opponents (8.320 and 8.420 points, respectively), who then went on to beat the Chinese competitors in the final to take gold.

Meanwhile, Vietnam missed out on the women's team poomsae medal, with Tuyet Van, Le Kim and Thuy Dung being stunned by the RoK athletes in the quarter-finals (8.130 and 8.240 points, respectively).

Vietnam's second bronze medal went to shooters Tran Quoc Cuong and Le Thi Linh Chi, who scored 407.5 points in the finals, behind the leaders from China (473.2 points) and the RoK runners-up (467.6 points).

Vietnam U23s brilliantly edged out Japan 1-0 in their last Group D match on the same day to qualify for the knockout stage as the group winners. In the women's football, the Vietnamese team also booked a quarter-final berth following their thrilling 3-2 victory over arch rivals Thailand.

Vietnam's wushu team had a good day of competition, as Duong Thuy Vi and Tran Thi Khanh Ly temporarily stood third in the women's Jianshu and Taijiquan events with respective scores of 9.7 and 9.68.

The Sanda competition also saw victories for the Vietnamese artists, with Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy beating Rai Juni (Nepal) 2-0 in the women's under-52kg Round of 16, Chu Thi Thuy Hang edging Lin Yiju (Chinese Taipei) 2-1 in the women's under-60kg Round of 16, and Bui Truong Giang seeing off Ashimzhanov Sukhrab (Kazakhstan) 2-0 in the men's under-56kg Round of 32.

As of 10pm on August 19, China temporarily led the medal tally with seven gold medals, followed by Japan and the RoK with three and two gold medals, respectively.

Today, Vietnamese athletes will compete in artistic gymnastics, women's beach volleyball, mountain bike cycling, fencing, rowing, sepak takraw, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, wrestling and wushu.

(Source: NDO)