Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh got off to a good start at the 2012 London Olympics with victory in his first match in the preliminary round on July 30.

Minh, selected to be the seed of Group D, defeated Tan Yu Han of Belgiuan 2-1, and will compete with Kashyap Parupalli of India, who now ranks 21 st in the world ranking, on July 31.

Except for Minh, all other Vietnamese athletes were unsuccessful during their first days of the Games.

Artistic gymnasts Phan Thi Ha Thanh and Do Thi Ngan Thuong failed the right in the qualifying round as they had to compete with those from the world’s leading gymnastics countries such as the US, Russia, China and Romania.

Their male teammate, Pham Phuoc Hung, was also unable to pass the qualification round in the men’s parallel bars event with 15.133 points, ranking 19 th among 71 participants.

In the rowing women’s pair, Pham Thi Hai and Pham Thi Thao competed with their rivals from China , Japan , the Republic of Korea and Germany . However, whether they enter the semi-finals or not will depend on the result of their competition on July 31.

Weightlifter Tran Le Quoc Toan missed the bronze medal in the men’s 56kg category after finishing fourth with a score of 284 kg, just 2 kg short of the second runner-up’s performance. Meanwhile, in the women’s 53kg category, Nguyen Thi Thuy lifted 195 kg, ranking 8 th among 18 participants.

Shooter Le Thi Hoang Ngoc did not pass the 10m air rifle women’s qualification, with 379 points. Ngoc came out 21 st out of 49 competitors.
One day earlier, shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh ranked 9 th with 582 points in the air rifle men’s qualification, failing to be among the eight to enter the final round.-VNA