VietNamNet Bridge – An exploit has come to Vietnam’s gymnastics, when the national gymnastic team left the world gymnastics championships in Japan with a bronze medal and two tickets to Olympic 2012 for Ha Thanh and the national team.
The meeting of national sports teams on October 17 was very lively with the report by Nguyen Kim Lan, head of the gymnastics division of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training, who has just returned home from the World Gymnastics Championships.

According to Lan, with one bronze medal, two gymnasts entering the finals, two others ranking tenth and Vietnam among the top ten countries, the Vietnamese gymnastics team has made an exploit: winning a world medal for the first time and winning two tickets to Olympic 2012 for single vault and team’s vault.

Two Vietnamese gymnasts, both named Ha Thanh, entered the finals of men’s and women’s vault. Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh won Vietnam's first world-class gymnastics medal as she finished third in the women's vault on October 15, on the eve of her 20th birthday.

The title went to 16-year-old American McKayla Maroney who collected 15.300 points, with Germany's 36-year-old Oksana Chusovitina second at 14.733. Thanh scored 14.666.

Ha Thanh, who started gymnastics at the age of six, also earned a ticket to the 2012 London Olympics. All individual apparatus medalists at these championships qualify for the Games unless their countries already booked berths in London as teams.

The Vietnamese national team also won a ticket to team’s vault at Olympic 2012 with the top 23 teams of the World Gymnastics Championships.

PV