Women rowers grab two Olympic slots for Vietnam

At the Asia and Oceania qualifiers in Tokyo, they finished second in the women’s lightweight double sculls in a time of 7 minutes and 17.34 seconds behind Japan’s Chiaki Tomita and Ayami Oishi, who finished in 7 minutes and 15.84 seconds.

The top three qualified. The other duo are from Iran.

In the women’s single sculls, Pham Thi Hue placed fourth. This should have qualified her since the top five go through, but each country is only allowed to send its top scorers in the qualifiers to the event, and Vietnam's are Thao and Hao.

Earlier Nguyen Huy Hoang (swimming), Le Thanh Tung, Dinh Phuong Thanh (gymnastics), Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu, Do Thi Anh Nguyet (archery) and Nguyen Van Duong (boxing) had already qualified.

The Tokyo Olympics, delayed since last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8.

Vietnam’s best result ever was at the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016, where Hoang Xuan Vinh clinched a gold medal in the 10 m air pistol category.