Sharpshooters Ha Minh Thanh, Tran Quoc Cuong and Hoang Xuan Vinh will be a formidable force at the upcoming Asian Shooting Championship in Doha, Qatar, on January 11.

Thanh has made a tonne of progressive since bagging the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol bronze medal with a score of 583 points at the Guangzhou Asian Games in China last year.

The 27-year-old also set up a milestone for Viet Nam at the Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia last month when he won gold and broke the record with 584 points.

Thanh will qualify for the 2012 London Olympics if successful at the Doha Championship next month.

“He’s one of the best young national shooters having sustained his form since last year’s Asian Games. He is used to scoring around 589 points during training and I hope he’ll do the same during the competition,” said team coach Nguyen Thi Nhung.

The Thanh Hoa-born athlete was ranked fourth by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) at the World Cup in Munich, Germany, last June.

At the Beijing World Cup last year, Tran Quoc Cuong, 36, finished in 4th place and just missed a bronze medal when he equalled Ukrainian Oleg Omelchuck’s 559 points after 60 shots, dropping only 0.2 points in the final 10 shots.

Vinh, who doubled the SEA Games gold medal tally in the men’s individual and team air pistol events, will have to beat his nerves to secure a spot at the Olympics.

At last year’s Asian Games, Vinh narrowly missed a gold medal in the men’s pistol event when he fired the last bullet off target.

The team coach said that the Doha event would be the best opportunity for Vietnamese shooters to qualify for the London Games next year.

Last year, Vietnamese shooters failed to qualify for Olympic berths at the ISSF World Cups in Changwon, South Korea and Munich.

VNS