Eighteen Vietnamese athletes have got tickets to the London 2012 Olympics, the highest number since Vietnam joined the games.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has finalized the list of athletes for the Olympics, including two weightlifters, a male and a female, from Vietnam.

Previously, Vietnam knew exactly that it would have a male weightlifter to participate in the games. 

In the Asian qualifier round, Vietnam and Malaysia had 91 points in the women’s team category. At that time, the tournament website announced that the sixth card for Asia would be given to Malaysia because this country exceeded Vietnam in some sub-indexes.

However, the Malaysia card has been transferred to Vietnam, with unknown reason.

Some sources said that possibly, some weightlifters of other countries used dope, so the point for the Vietnamese women’s team was raised, to exceed Malaysia.

This argument has its ground because in Europe, the men’s teams of Greece and Italy would replace Lithuania and Slovakia while in Asia, the men’s team of Iraq would take the card of Syria, also with unknown reason.

According to the national weightlifting team, the two representatives of Vietnam would be Tran Le Quoc Toan and Nguyen Thi Thuy (women’s 53kg).

After good news from weightlifting, two Vietnamese swimmers have also got wild cards to the Olympics, Hoang Quy Phuoc and Nguyen Thi Anh Vien.

Phuoc and Vien attained the B Olympic standards but under the international swimming association (FINA), swimmers with A standards will surely win cards to Olympics. Athletes with B standards have to wait for approval.

Phuoc and Vien have nearly had no chance to reach A standards, so when FINA gave Vietnam two wild tickets, Vietnam registered for Quy Phuoc and Anh Vien.

Vice head of the General Department of Sports and Tourism, Mr. Lam Quang Thanh, said that the department chose Phuoc and Vien to make sure that Vietnam’s best swimmers will be at the games, instead of waiting for FINA’s consideration of B standards.

According to regulations, FINA will select 900 swimmers for the Olympics. At present, nearly 700 athletes have attained A standards. The remaining 200 tickets will be granted to swimmers who reached B standards and exceptional cases. If waiting for B standard selection, the opportunity for Phuoc and Vien is dim because Phuoc and Vien’s records are not high. 

Based on the result at swimming tournaments in 2011 and 2012, Phuoc ranks 16th among athletes that broke B standards for men’s 100m butterfly category while Vien is not in the top 20 for women’s 200m backstroke category.

Besides the 18 athletes who have already won cards to the Olympics, Vietnam will have only one wild card for track-and-field – walker Nguyen Thanh Ngung.

However, at the upcoming All Stars Asia tournament, if runners Truong Thanh Hang and Vu Thi Huong, high-jumper Duong Thi Viet Anh attain the B standards, the wild card for Ngung will be canceled.

The 18 Vietnamese athletes who will go to London including: Phan Thi Ha Thanh, Pham Phuoc Hung, Do Thi Ngan Thuong (gymnastics), Hoang Xuan Vinh, Le Thi Hoang Ngoc (shooting), Van Ngoc Tu (Judo), Nguyen Thi Lua (wrestling), Le Huynh Chau, Chu Hoang Dieu Linh (taekwondo), Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc (athletics), Nguyen Tien Minh (badminton), Pham Thi Hai, Pham Thi Thao (rowing), Nguyen Tien Nhan (fencing), Tran Le Quoc Toan, Nguyen Thi Thuy (weightlifting), Hoang Quy Phuoc, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien (swimming).

Source: VNN