Vietnam grabbed their first silver medal at the Asian Beach Games in
the women's sepak takraw (rattan ball kicking) team event in Haiyang
City , China on June 20.
The girls defeated
their hosts 2-1 in the final match of the round-robin event. Earlier,
they beat Indonesia 2-1 but lost 0-2 to Thailand who were crowned
champions.
China and Indonesia shared third place.
"Winning the silver means that we have already fulfilled our target
set before leaving for China . It (Asian Beach Games) is a tough
tournament. We had little time to prepare while our sepak takraw team is
young and in- experienced. However, I still hope that we can scoop up
more medals in the next few days," Nguyen Thanh Lam, deputy head of the
Vietnam delegation said at the award ceremony.
In the beach handball event, the Vietnamese team booked a berth in the semi-final round after ranking second in Group A.
The team won three out of four matches against Turkmenistan , India
and Japan . Their only loss was to Chinese Taipei.
The beach competition has drawn 43 Asian teams competing in 13 events,
with Vietnam ranked 11th after grabbing one silver.
Hosts China top the medal tally with seven gold, five silver and six
bronze awards, followed by Indonesia and the Republic of Korea .
The Games will wrap up on June 22.-VNA