Vinh scored 579 points in the preliminary round, just behind Singapore’s famous Gai Bin.
He made a slow start to the finals, ranking seventh out of eight competitors after the first two shots.
However, the Vietnamese star then demonstrated amazing accuracy in his remaining shots to stand on the top of the podium with 238.9 points, which is 5.7 points more than the second-place marksman and is a new SEA record.
Vinh’s teammate, Tran Quoc Cuong, also made it through to the final round but only ended up in fifth place overall.
Earlier, Vinh had been under pressure as he failed in the 50m slow fire pistol, in which he claimed silver at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last year.
The Olympic champion only finished fifth, while Quoc Cuong was named the bronze medalist in the same category. Wong Jonathan of Malaysia won the gold and set up a new record with 226.5 points.
Besides Vinh, Vietnam also brought home two additional individual gold medals, thanks to Pham Thi Ha in the women’s 25m sport pistol event and Phan Cong Minh in the men’s 25m standard pistol discipline; and three more team gold medals.
As of May 9, Vietnam temporarily stood second in the medal tally with six gold, seven silver and six bronze medals, behind hosts Malaysia with 12 gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.
The tournament will conclude tomorrow.
