Weightlifting coach apologizes for Olympics blank in Tokyo

"We apologize to the fans who have always been supporting us. We are really sad because the result was not what we expected. We have given our best, but the opponents were really strong so we couldn't bring a medal home," Thang said Tuesday.

Duyen was Vietnam’s major medal hope at the Tokyo Olympics, but she couldn’t live up to the expectations. In the snatch competition, she only lifted 95 kg. In the jerk and clean competition, she lifted 113 kg and tried to raise the weight up to 119 kg to improve her total but failed. Duyen registered a total of 208 kg and finished fifth.

"I can’t blame anyone for my failure and I will take this as a valuable lesson to improve in the future," Duyen said.

The 25-year-old came to Tokyo with many disadvantages. After competing in the Asian Weightlifting Championship in Uzbekistan, Duyen returned to Vietnam in late April and was quarantined for 21 days. On the 20th day, the center detected a new Covid-19 case, which forced her to stay another 21 days in quarantine. As she rushed to train after that period, she suffered an injury.

"In the past two years, Duyen couldn’t compete in many international tournaments, so she hasn’t been in her best form. The failure at Tokyo Olympics is a great lesson for us to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics," Thang said.

Thach Kim Tuan, the other Vietnamese weightlifter at the Olympics, was eliminated on Sunday after failing to lift the barbell in the clean and jerk category in the men's 61kg weightlifting event to register a total.

Do Dinh Khang, general secretary of Vietnam Weightlifting Federation, told Tuoi Tre newspaper then that both Tuan and Duyen only had a month to train for the tournament, and they had not competed much in international tournaments due to Covid-19.