Vietnam’s biggest medal hope, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien lived up to expectations as she brought home the Women’s 200m Medley gold medal on August 17, the first gold for Vietnam at the ongoing second Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Nanjing, China, and also Vietnam’s first swimming gold at a YOG competition.
Anh Vien makes history as she clinches Vietnam’s first YOG swimming gold medal.
Despite sneaking through the qualifying round in sixth place with a time of 2:16.02, Anh Vien took the finals by storm, finishing first in a time of 2:12.66, breaking the previous YOG record of 2:14.53, held by the US swimmer Kaitlyn Jones.
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Bernadette Haughey ended up in second position clocking a time of 2:13.21, while the American qualifying stage leader, Meghan Small finished third with a time of 2:14.01.
Weightlifter Nguyen Tran Anh Tuan took silver in the men’s 56kg weight category on the same day with his total lift of 243kg, 40kg lighter than the gold medallist Cheng Meng of China.
The 2nd YOG will be taking place in Nanjing from August 16-28, with 13 Vietnamese athletes competing in seven sports; swimming, weightlifting, badminton, gymnastics, taekwondo, rowing and beach volleyball.
At the first edition in Singapore four years ago, the Vietnamese team placed 41st, winning four medals including one gold, one silver and two bronze.
