“Two Olympic slots were supposed to be awarded via the 2021 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships set for next month in China, excluding the already-qualified athletes or those coming from countries which have attained sufficient berths,” Sang said.

Dinh Phuong Thanh performs on horizontal bar at the 30th SEA Games in the Philippines.

However, with the tournament having been cancelled due to Covid-19, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) decided to grant these slots to Asian athletes with high results in the all-around qualification at the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships,” he said.

Two years ago, Dinh Phuong Thanh settled for 75th position in the all-around qualification at the world championship with 77.465 points from the six disciplines of freestyle, vault, pommel horse, ring, parallel bars and horizontal bar. 

Meanwhile, Le Thanh Tung, another Vietnamese gymnast, ranked 59th with 78.832 points. Yet, with Tung having secured an Olympic ticket thanks to his fifth-place finish in the vault qualification, the two remaining all-around Olympic slots were awarded to Dinh Phuong Thanh and another Asian representative.

Phuong Thanh and Thanh Tung are the two most prominent athletes in Vietnamese gymnastics. Phuong Thanh won three successive gold medals on the parallel bars from the 28th to 30th edition of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, increasing his SEA Games gold tally to eight. Meanwhile, Thanh Tung has also claimed five SEA Games gold medals thus far.

This is the first time these two gymnasts have qualified for the world’s most prestigious quadrennial sporting event.

Phuong Thanh is the sixth Vietnamese athlete to book a place in the upcoming Tokyo Games, after swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang, gymnast Le Thanh Tung, archers Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu and Do Thi Anh Nguyet, and boxer Nguyen Van Duong.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Vietnam was represented by 23 athletes in 10 sports, with shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh bringing home the country’s first ever Olympic gold medal.

The Tokyo Games is scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021, with a total of 339 sets of medals across 33 sports.

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Source: NDO