Vietnam win gold, silver at Asian Taekwondo Championship

Truong Thi Kim Tuyen is on the top podium of the women's 49kg discipline at the Asian Taekwondo Championship in Lebanon. Photo: VNA

Truong Thi Kim Tuyen won gold in the women's 49kg category. The No 1 seed defeated No 2 Mannopova Madinabonu of Uzbekistan 25-24 in the final.

It was Tuyen's second Asian title in a row after her first in the 46kg class three year ago held in Vietnam. She is the first Vietnamese fighter to have won the continental competition. Madinabonu also took part in that event and grabbed a bronze.

Tuyen received a bye in the first round. She beat Munisa Oimatova of Tajikistan, No 9 seed, in the quarter-finals and No 5 Hung Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals. Hung and Tuyen will have a chance to fight again next month as both have qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo.

On June 16, Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet pocketed a silver in the women's 57kg class. The unseeded player shocked No 4 Laetitia Aoun of the hosts 12-0 in the quarter-finals before beating No 1 Chen Yu-Chuang of Chinese Taipei 5-4 in the last four. Chen previously knocked Tuyet out of an Olympic qualification tournament last month.

Tuyet however fell 28-11 to No 3 Kim Yu-jin of the Republic of Korea in the final.

Ho Thi Kim Ngan, who was seeded No 4 in the women's 53kg pool, had an unsuccessful event as she was eliminated in the first round by Ghazal Soltani of Iran.

The Asian championship, which was on June 14-18, lured nearly 340 athletes from 28 countries and territories competing in 16 pools for both men and women.

Vietnamese players will fly to Kazakhstan to continue their training until July 10 when Tuyen and her coach Kim Ki-tae take part in the Tokyo Games.

VNA