Vietnam’s Tokyo 2020 campaign wraps up as Lan stops in women’s 400m hurdles semis

The Vietnam Olympic contingent has officially concluded their campaign at Tokyo 2020 after 26-year-old runner Quach Thi Lan failed to course through the women’s 400m hurdles semifinals at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Monday (August 2).

Vietnamese hurdler Quach Thi Lan bids farewell to Tokyo 2020 Olympics with many good memories.
Vietnamese hurdler Quach Thi Lan bids farewell to Tokyo 2020 Olympics with many good memories.

The competition saw 24 athletes split into three heats of eight runners, with the top two in each heat and the next two fastest advancing to the Final, scheduled for August 4.

Lan was the sixth fastest among the eight participants in the first semifinal with a time of 56.78, thus missing out on a historic Final slot.

Olympic title holder and 2019 world champion Daliah Muhammad (US), who was the best performer in the preliminary round with a time of 53.97, continued her dominance in the race finishing first in 53.30.

She will be joined by runner-up Janieve Russell as the first two finalists after the Jamaican was named the second fastest in the semis with a time of 54.10.

The results of the first semifinal in the women's 400m hurdles at Tokyo 2020. (Photo: Screenshot)

With Lan stopping in the 400m hurdles semifinals, the Vietnam Olympic contingent has offically concluded their campaign at Tokyo 2020 with no medal won.

Although the time of 56.78 did not help Lan realise the goal of breaking her national record of 55.30 set at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, it is still an encouraging result for the 1995-born girl who did not participate in any overseas training camps or major international tournaments since the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2019 in the Philippines.

Despite failing to advance at Tokyo 2020 as well as smash her national record, Lan became the first Vietnamese runner to have qualified for an athletics semis at the Olympic Games after finishing the preliminary competition in a season best of 55.71 on July 31.

In addition, she was only the fifth female Asian athlete in history to compete in the Olympic 400m hurdles, after Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (India, 1984), Natalya Torshina (Kazakhstan, 2000, 2004), Huang Xiaoxiao (China, 2004) and Satomi Kubokura (Japan, 2008, 2012).