Hoang Thi Duyen is to represent Vietnam at the Tokyo Olympics. Photo baomoi.com

Three Vietnamese lifters qualified for the Games but one slot for a female competitor was stripped as a punishment from the International Weightlifting Federation and the International Testing Agency for doping violations in recent years.

The Vietnam Weightlifting Federation had to choose between Duyen (women’s 59kg) and Vuong Thi Huyen (women’s 49kg), who are both SEA Games champions and have reached many medals from international competitions.

According to Do Dinh Khang, general secretary of the Vietnam Weightlifting and Body Building Federation, Duyen was picked based due to her better overall results and current performance.

Khang said to encourage athletes, the federation will present a bonus of VND50 million (US$2,200) for a gold medallist and VND40 million and VND30 million for silver and bronze medal holders, respectively.

Vietnam's best Olympic weightlifting result was a silver by Hoang Anh Tuan in the men's 56kg class at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Source: Vietnam News

One Olympic weightlifting slot striped due to doping

Vietnam’s weightlifting team has lost one of its three berths at the coming Olympics due to previous doping violations.