Linh grabs Vietnam's sole Olympic women's badminton slot

The country has only one slot in women’s badminton and it was a toss-up between its top two players, Linh and Vu Thi Trang.

Linh is currently ranked 44th with 30,416 points, and Trang is 49th with 28,555, and to go past her rival, Trang would have needed to play in international tournaments and score points.

But with the Covid-19 epidemic raging, most tournaments have been canceled. Besides, Trang wants to take no chances with her own safety either, Nguyen Tien Minh, her husband and Vietnam’s top badminton player, said.

She has not been in good form in the last two years, and so she is not too upset about missing the Olympics, he added.

This will be Linh’s first Olympics. In February she finished second at the Austrian Open, and earlier won the 2019 Bangladesh International Series.

Minh will be the country’s sole male player in the Olympics, qualifying for a fourth time.

The Badminton World Federation will announce the Olympic field only on April 26.