Bui Thi Thu Thao won the long jump silver medal at the 2016 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships which concluded in Doha, Qatar, on February 21.


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Bui Thi Thu Thao gets a silver medal at the 2016 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships (Source: VNA)


Thao finished second in the women's category with a 6.3m jump while Mayookha Johny dominated the category from the outset and finished on top of the podium with a leap of 6.35m, an effort that propelled her to India's first Asian indoor title in the event.

Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan finished third with an effort of 6.22m.

Thao's jump wasn't enough to earn her a ticket to to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the qualifying result is 6.70m.

Thao's best performance was in the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore last year with a 6.65m jump won a silver medal. She also won silver at the Asian Games in 2014 with a 6.44m jump.

Another Vietnamese representative, Quach Thi Lan brought home a bronze medal in the women's 400m with a time of 55.69sec behind Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya of Bahrain on 51.67sec, and Elina Mikhina of Kazakhstan on 53.85sec.

Lan, from the northern province of Thanh Hoa, failed to qualify for Brazil as her run didn't meet the Olympic standard of 52.20sec.

20-year-old Lan said she wasn't satisfied with her performance. She added that she had recently ran in 54.48sec at a tournament in the US.

Vietnam's two other athletes, Quach Cong Lich and Tran Hue Hoa, also fared poorly in the men's 400m and women's triple jump.

Lich and Lan are training in the US. After the Asian championships, they will return to the US to continue their training.

Nearly 300 athletes from 36 countries took part in the three-day tournament in the same facility that hosted the event in 2008 and the IAAF World Indoor Championships two years later.

Vietnam secured two berths in athletics events for the London Olympics in 2012 at the last world indoor championships, but have not secured any Olympic berths this year.

VNA