Paralympics: Vietnam’s athletes achieve encouraging results on Day 4

Although unable to win another medal, Vietnamese athletes gained encouraging results on Day 4 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games on August 28.

Cao Ngoc Hung achieved an excellent performance in Men's Javelin Throw - F57 final on August 28, despite failing to defend his bronze medal won at Rio 2016.
Cao Ngoc Hung achieved an excellent performance in Men's Javelin Throw - F57 final on August 28, despite failing to defend his bronze medal won at Rio 2016.

>>> Vietnamese swimmers enter final round at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

In athletics, Cao Ngoc Hung gave an excellent performance even though he could not successfully defend the bronze medal in the men's javelin throw F57 as he did at Rio 2016.

In the 6th final throw, he achieved a best of 43.91 m, better than his own record that won bronze five years ago (at 43.27 m), even surpassing the distance that won silver in Rio 2016.

However, Hung's opponents in this year's Games were too strong. A total of four athletes took turns breaking the Paralympic record, with two of them breaking the world record. In the end, Hamed Heidari (Azerbaijan) won gold with a new World and Paralympic record of 51.42 m. Hung ranked 6th out of 12 finalists.

In the morning, swimmers Do Thanh Hai and Trinh Thi Bich Nhu both qualified for the finals in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB5 and women’s 100m breaststroke SB5, respectively.

In the final round later that the day, Hai finished 6th overall in 1:35.68, better than the qualifying parameters (1:35.97). Five years ago, at Rio 2016, Hai ranked 7th in the final of this content with 1:40.31. Thus, he has improved in achievement by nearly five seconds.

Meanwhile, Nhu finished 7th in 1:53.00, 31% better than her result in the qualifying round.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Hai competed in the women's discus throw F57 event. She threw 27.39 m, which is her seasonal best but was not enough to push her into the top three. Hai ranked ninth and will take part in the women's shot put event on September 2.

Vietnamese athletes will have a free day tomorrow before returning to action the next day, with Nhu to compete in her last competition in the women's 50m butterfly S6 event and Tung in the men's 50m freestyle S5m, which is his strongest event towards winning Vietnam’s second medal from Tokyo.

Thus, with the track and field team unable to bring home a second medal today, by the end of August 28, the Vietnamese sports team at Tokyo 2020 had only one silver medal, won by Le Van Cong in the men's 49kg powerlifting on August 26. The team are ranked 48th in the medal tally.

Today, Bonnie Bunyau Gustin brought home the gold medal for Malaysia and broke the Paralympic record in the men’s 72kg powerlifting. Malaysia are in 35th place in the medal table with one gold medal, on par with Singapore.

China won 10 more gold medals today to consolidate their top spot with a total of 30 gold, 21 silver and 26 bronze medals.

Great Britain also had a successful day as they won seven more gold medals to rank second with 16 golds, 12 silvers and 15 bronzes.

Ukraine rose to 5th with five more gold medals won today, bringing their total to eight golds.