Team set to peak for Asian Games

The Vietnamese gymnastics team has vowed to bring home their first medal from the Asian Games.
The Vietnamese gymnastics team has vowed to bring home their first medal from the Asian Games.

"It will be a challenge for us at Asia 's biggest games, but I do believe that all athletes will make something happen like they did at the World Cup event," said head of the National Sports Administration's gymnastics division Nguyen Kim Lan.

Top gymnasts Phan Thi Ha Thanh and Pham Phuoc Hung will lead their team as they attempt to bring home a gold medal at the Asian Games in China next month.

The duo performed well at the Artistic Gymnastics FIG World Cup in Porto , Portugal in June.

Thanh pocketed a silver medal in the women's individual vault event.

The Southeast Asian Games champion finished seventh out of 19 in the floor event and seventh in the balanced beam competition.

"It's the best result a Vietnamese gymnast has achieved at an international competition since the country first competed at the Moscow Olympics in 1980," said Lan.

Pham Phuoc Hung achieved a personal best when he finished fourth in the men's individual parallel bars event at the World Cup.

The Hanoian qualified for the parallel bars final round at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in London last October.

Hung, who has been training in China since 1998, and his male teammates will compete at the international event in the Netherlands , which runs through next week.

The team will also receive help from Do Thi Ngan Thuong, who is eligible to compete in the women's all-around event.

The Beijing Olympian said she will do her best at the Guangzhou Games to win a medal that she can add to her collection./.

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