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| Vietnam's Thi Thuy Nguyen competes on the women's 53Kg Group B weightlifting competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games |
Tu failed to score any points against her Brazilian rival, while Menezes earned two Yuko points.
After beating Tu, Menezes went on to defeat another opponent from Team France and advanced into the quarterfinal.
The second Vietnamese athlete to take the stage, shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh, also had to stop at the qualifier round, this time int the men’s 10m air rifle category.
Vinh made it to the top ten with 582 points and ranked #9, but only the top eight shooters in the qualifier were allowed to enter the next round.
The Vietnamese shooter stood just 1 point behind the 8th qualified athlete. Korean shooter Jin Jongoh topped the category with 588 points.
Meanwhile in the women’s 10m air rifle, Vietnamese shooter Le Thi Hoang Ngoc was also eliminated as she only scored 379 points at the qualifier.
Gymnasts ousted
Vietnamese female athletes Do Thi Ngan Thuong and Phan Thi Ha Thanh on Sunday began their gymnastics qualifier, but both encountered failure.
Thuong only received 11,466 points for her uneven bars performance, and 11,966 at the beam category. She thus ranked at the bottom of the list of 80 gymnasts competing in the qualifier, a result that did not meet the expectations of the Team Vietnam chiefs.
Thuong was not in her best form due to an ankle injure prior to her London journey, which left her only able to compete at the uneven bars and beam.
Following her teammate, Thanh could not achieve her best result as she had to encounter the world’s best.
The Hai Phong-based gymnast earned 13,533 and 12,466 points after her performances at the vault and floor events. In her favorite category -- vault -- Thanh too was ranked only 12 out of 18.
Vietnamese gymnastics thus bid their official goodbye to the Olympics, as earlier male gymnast Pham Phuoc Hung was ousted from the qualifier.
Meanwhile weightlifter Tran Le Quoc Toan, who had the highest hope for a medal, on Sunday failed to grab any medals at the men’s 56kg category.
Toan raised a total weight of 293kg, 1kg lower than his usual result, and had to accept fourth place, after Valentin Hristov Snezhev of Azerbaijan. North Korean athlete Om Yun Chol snatched the gold medal while Wu Jingbao of China took the silver.
In the women’s 53kg category, Nguyen Thi Thuy of Team Vietnam also failed to achieve her registered weight of 200kg. Thuy finished the event in 8th place.
Swimming, badminton, rowing advance
At her first competition day on July 28, swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien joined the women’s 400m freestyle with opponents from Mexico, Finland, and Pakistan, and topped the race at 4:50.32.
However, her result was far lower than those of rivals in the other sections, which ranged between 4:31 and 4:43.
Vien, who is not even 16, is one of the youngest Olympians in London, according to the organizers.
She will continue to compete at the 200m breaststroke on August 2, where she is expected to make a miracle.
Meanwhile, the world number 11 Nguyen Tien Minh scored a victory in his first game at the men’s badminton category, after beating Belgian Tan Yuhan rival.
Yuhan, the world number 54, took a surprise 1-0 lead by defeating Minh at 21 – 17, before losing the following games at 14 – 21, and 10 – 21.
The first win eased Minh’s psychological pressure and he is likely to continue by beating Indian rival Kashyap Parupalli in the key encounter of Group D, as the winner of the match will be the only one to advance into the next round.
In another development, Vietnamese rowing duo Pham Thi Hai and Pham Thi Thao finished in last place, at 7:50:06, during their competition in the women's lightweight double sculls.
However, the two are still qualified to compete at the play-off competition to win a ticket to the semifinal.
