Teen swimmer first Vietnamese to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

By Xuan Binh   July 23, 2019 | 04:56 pm PT
Teen swimmer first Vietnamese to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
Nguyen Huy Hoang, a Vietnamese star swimmer who has secured medals at regional tournaments, is going to the Olympics. Photo by Duc Dong/VnExpress.
Nguyen Huy Hoang became the first Vietnamese athlete to secure a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after achieving good result at a world tournament.

The 19-year-old finished the men’s 800-meter freestyle race at the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships in South Korea in 7 minutes 52.74 seconds, under the Olympic Standard A time of 7 minutes 54.31 seconds.

After the second day, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri had the best time in the men’s 800-meter freestyle race at 7 minutes 45.70 seconds.

In Asia, Hoang is only behind China’ Sun Yang who finished with a time of 7 minutes 48.12 seconds.

In 2018, Hoang had finished first in the men’s 800-meter freestyle at the Summer Youth Olympics in Argentina in 7 minutes 50.20 seconds. However, the coming Olympics will only include qualifying events from March 2019.

Hoang failed to qualify for the men’s 400-meter preliminary when he did not make it into the heat’s Top 10. He finished 3.81 seconds behind his Czech rival, Jan Micka, who came in at the 10th place.

The Vietnamese swimmer will compete in the men’s freestyle 1,500-meter final on July 27 and will target meeting the Olympic Standard A time of 15 minutes 00.99 seconds.

Hoang, a native of Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam, competed in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle at both SEA Games 2017 and ASIAD 2018. He won gold in the former and a silver in the latter.

 
 
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