Vietnamese gymnast wins gold at Incheon competition

Vietnamese gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh has won a gold medal at the Korea World Top 2014 competition which took place in Incheon, the Republic of Korea, from April 16-21.

Thanh earned 14,225 points in the women's vault event.

Last month, she took a bronze medal in the same event at the 7th FIG World Challenge Cup in Doha, Qatar.

She now aims to bag an Asian Games gold medal at Incheon in September.

Son suffers setback at Sharjah chess championship

Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son was ousted from the group of leading players at the Asian Continental Open Chess Championships in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates yesterday.

After five rounds, Son has five points and is ranked 23 out of 64 players.

Vietnamese player Dao Thien Hai is No 24, while Nguyen Duc Hoa is No 29.

Today, Son will meet Salem AR Saleh of the UAE in the sixth round, Hai will play Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India and Hoa will meet Wang Yiye of China.

In the women's side, three Vietnamese players are in the top 10, including Hoang Thi Bao Tram (No 6) with 3.5 points, and Nguyen Thi Thanh An (No 9) and Hoang Thi Nhu Y (No 10) with three points each.

Despite having three points, Pham Le Thao Nguyen is ranked No 12 because of a different auxiliary index. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung is ranked No 17 with 2.5 points.

Today, Tram will meet Ni Shiqun of China, An plays Karavade Eesha of India, Nguyen meets Y and Hung competes with Swathi Ghate of India.

The event will end on Friday.

The top five from the Asian Open Championships will qualify for the 2015 World Cup. The Asian Women's champion qualifies for the 2015 Women's World Championships.

Thanh Hoa sign foreign nationals

V-League side Thanh Hoa have signed a four-month contract with Dinh Van Ta and Hoang Vissai of Ninh Binh to add to existing naturalised team-members Nguyen Rogerio and Le Van Tan.

Ta and Vissai have not been implicated in the Ninh Binh match fixing investigation, and are currently in Myanmar preparing the Asian Football Confederation Cup where they will play Yangon United in their last match of Group G today.

After the match, Ta and Vissai will join Thanh Hoa's bid for this year's V-League title.

Duan wins cycling cup third stage

Le Van Duan was the first to finish the third stage of the 26th HCM City Television Cycling Cup yesterday.

With no competitors to speak of in the last metre of the third stage, Duan of SunTek Sao Viet has clocked a time of 4:09.30 in the 168km race from Vung Tau City to Phan Thiet City.

Le Nguyet Minh of HCM City's Eximbank and Tran Van Quyen of Military Zone 7 were the runners-up.

Although An Giang Plant Protection's Ho Huynh Van An came seventh, he still won the yellow jersey for having the best overall time after three stages of 8:19.00, followed by Phan Hoang Thai and Nguyen Minh Luan of Thanh Son Hoa Nong.

An also led the race to win the green jersey for the best sprinter with 32 points.

In the team event, Thanh Son Hoa Nong took the lead with a time of 25:25.05. Dong Thap and Military Zone 7 finished second and third, respectively.

Today, the cyclists start on the fourth stage of the race from Phan Thiet to Phan Rang City.

The event has attracted 12 teams from across the country. They are competing in 11 stages over 1,173km from the Southern coastal region to the Central Highlands, finishing in HCM City.