Nguyen Thi Huong of Vietnam (left) wins a silver in the women's C1 200m event of the 2024 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships on April 21 to qualify for the Paris Olympics. - Photos of Vietnam Sports Team
HANOI: Vietnam will have a representative in canoeing at the Olympics for the first time in history this summer as Nguyen Thi Huong officially secured her spot on Sunday (April 21).
Multi-time SEA Games champion Huong finished second in the women's C1 200m event of the 2024 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships with a time of 49.351sec.
She was just a hair behind Nilufar Zokirova of Uzbekistan.
Mariya Brovkova of Kazakhstan came third on 49.423sec.
In this event, the two top spots win tickets to the Paris Games.
Huong, 23, has opened a new chapter in Vietnam's canoeing as she is the first Olympic canoeist in history.
This was her second silver in this championship. Earlier, in pair with Nguyen Hong Thai, she came second in the women's C2 500m event.
Pha Thi Hue will compete in the Paris Olympics after her successful qualification round performance on April 21 in South Korea
Hours after Huong, Phạm Thin Hue secured her own Olympic spot in rowing.
Hue was among Vietnamese athletes at the World Rowing Asian and Oceanian Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in South Korea.
Hue competed against five athletes from Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Iran and Uzbekistan in the women's single sculls event.
The SEA Games reigning champion placed fifth, enough for her to qualify for the Paris Games.
Earlier, Hue, one of Vietnam's the most experienced rowers, also qualified for the Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020. However, at these times Vietnam had more than one qualified slot and under the rules a country could only choose one; Hue was not picked.
Currently, Vietnam has nine athletes set to compete in Paris. The seven others are cyclist Nguyen Thi That, shooters Trinh Thu Vinh and Le Thi Mong Tuyen, boxer Vo Thi Kim Anh, swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang, weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh and badminton player Nguyen Thuy Linh. - Vietnam News/ANN
