An historic milestone was set for Vietnamese gymnastics at the 17th Asian Games (Asiad) on September 24 as Phan Thi Ha Thanh performed excellently to bring home the women’s vault bronze medal – the first ever Asiad medal won by a Vietnamese gymnast.

Ha Thanh came in third place with a final score of 14.683, behind the gold medalist, Hong Un Jong from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and second-place finisher, Uzbekistani Chusovitina Oksana.

Thanh will compete in the freestyle and balance beam finals tomorrow, which will be ideal opportunities for the Vietnamese gymnastics queen to bring more glories to the homeland.

Following Thanh’s success, her teammate, Dang Nam added another bronze medal to Vietnam’s Asiad tally as a result of his third-place finish in the men’s rings category with a score of 15.003. Chinese Liao Junlin took top honour with 15.556 points, while Japanese Takeda Kazuyuki claimed the silver medal with 15.100 points.

The Vietnam sports delegation wrapped up their fifth day of Asiad competition with 18 medals – one gold, four silver and 13 bronze.