These achievements show that the Vietnamese shooting has great potential. If well invested, it will be one of the leading spearheads of Vietnamese sports in continental and world competitions.
In addition to Trinh Thu Vinh, the Vietnamese shooting team has an excellent face, shooter Pham Quang Huy, who won a gold medal at the 19th Asian Games 2023. These two shooters won the first gold medal for the shooting team at the Asian Rifle / Pistol Cup 2025 held in Thailand in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
This is the second consecutive time two Vietnamese shooters have won a continental gold medal. Thu Vinh-Quang Huy also led the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships 2024 in Indonesia. At the Asian Rifle/Pistol Cup 2025, Thu Vinh and Quang Huy won individual bronze medals in the air pistol event.
The Vietnamese team also won a gold medal in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol team event with three shooters: Ha Minh Thanh, Pham Quang Huy and Vu Tien Nam. This is an accomplishment that Vietnamese shooters have only achieved in nearly 20 years. The trio of athletes Ha Minh Thanh-Tran Cong Hieu-Phan Cong Minh then won another gold medal in the men's 25m standard pistol event.
This is a remarkable achievement, but in reality, although it is identified as one of the key sports, investment in Vietnamese shooters is still only at a basic level. To reach a world-class level, Vietnamese shooting needs to be invested more strongly.
For many years, Vietnamese shooters have had to practice at outdated shooting ranges and often lack ammunition, even having to "practice without a gun".
In the short term, while waiting to increase training regimes and training costs, the best solution is to send top athletes to train and compete internationally, but finance is a problem.
Currently, the Department of Physical Training and Sports is spreading its budget across many sports, including “mass” sports, but lacks a mechanism to focus more investment on shooting and other sports with the potential to compete for Olympic medals.
Right after the Lunar New Year 2025, the Vietnamese shooting team returned to training on February 3, aiming for important goals such as the 33rd SEA Games 2025 and other major tournaments.
Head of the High-Performance Sports Department 1, under the Department of Physical Training and Sports, Hoang Quoc Vinh said, the goal that Vietnamese shooting has set is to defend the gold medal at the 19th ASIAD and prepare the best force to compete for a place at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, in the US.
In addition, preparing for the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand at the end of 2025 is considered aimed at the 20th Asian Games 2026 in Japan.
Hoang Quoc Vinh said: "Solving the problem of winning a gold medal at the ASIAD arena is very difficult. We once had shooter Pham Quang Huy achieve the above results at the 19th ASIAD. Therefore, the professional preparation work has been built by the coaching staff so that athletes can accumulate experience and achievements from 2025 with the best efforts and concentration”.
In the context of the outdated shooting range in Vietnam, the training and competition conditions are still difficult, but the coaching staff of the Vietnamese shooting team has determined and is focusing on professional skills so that members of the national shooting team can participate in about 20 domestic tournaments to compete, helping shooters increase their competition experience.
Domestic tournaments are also an opportunity to select young talents to supplement the national team because shooting is a unique sport.
Initially, the Vietnamese shooting team had Mongolian expert Altantsetseg Byambajavyn introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation to the Vietnam Shooting Federation. Altantsetseg Byambajavyn was a shooter for the Mongolian shooting team, participated in two Seoul 1988 Olympic Games and the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games as an athlete, and then participated in high-level training in the Republic of Korea.
With the guidance of Altantsetseg Byambajavyn, the shooters in the pistol event achieved impressive initial results. In the coming time, there will be more experts proposed by the Vietnam Shooting Federation to cooperate to improve shooting achievements.
