Former world silver medallist Thach Kim Tuan failed to win a medal as had been hoped at the ongoing Rio Olympics Games this morning (August 8) Hanoi time.

Tuan, who was believed ‘to get something for the Vietnam Team’ in the men’s 56kg weightlifting category, did not even make it to the final ranking after he failed in all his three attempts in the clean-and-jerk event.

The Vietnamese weightlifter ended fourth in the snatch event, with a lift of 130kg. He was behind China’s Long Qingquan, North Korea’s Om Yun-chol and Thailand’s Sinphet Kruaithong.

In the clean-and-jerk event, he tried to lift 157kg in the first attempt, but failed.

Tuấn and his coaches decided that he would try to lift 160kg in the second attempt, with the hope of making it to the top three ranks. However, the HCM City-based athlete was too nervous and could not make it, even in the third time with the same weight.

As the result, his final score was not recognised. 

His teammate Tran Le Quoc Toan also had an unsuccessful day. He lifted 121kg in the snatch and 154kg in the clean-and-jerk events. He stood fifth in the rankings.

China’s Long broke a 16-year-old world record, taking a second career Olympic gold.

Long lifted a total of 307kg to break a record set at the 2000 Sydney Games, ending North Korean Om’s four-year dominance of the men’s light weight category.

The 25-year-old, who won gold in Beijing eight years ago, dramatically set a new Olympic record of 170 kg with his last attempt in the clean and jerk event, beating defending champion Om, who came second.

Long earlier lifted 137kg in the snatch event as he and Om competed in a fierce battle that wowed the 6,000-strong crowd at the Riocentro Pavilion 2.

Audience favourite Om, who won the gold medal at London in 2012, was his usual lively self throughout, smiling and waving at spectators and punching the air in celebration after every successful lift.

He lifted 134kg in the snatch event and 169kg in the clean and jerk event to finish with a total of 303 kg, 14kg more than bronze medallist Sinphet Kruaithong of Thailand (289kg).

According to Việt Nam’s statistics, Tuấn often lifted 290kg during his training and in some tournaments in the last two years. In 2014, he lifted 296kg to claim a silver medal in the world championship.

Before landing in Rio, Tuấn, who is a medal hope, was in the United States for practice and he lifted about 304kg there.

If he utilised 95 per cent of his ability, he would definitely win a medal, Coach Huynh Huu Chi had said, before the Rio Games began.

Toan also did not compete as per expectations.

The athlete from Da Nang fared worse than what he did in London four years ago, where he lifted 284kg.

Head of Vietnam Sports Administration’s Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Department Do Dinh Khang said it was a terrible defeat for national weightlifting.

“It is a loss that we have not prepared for. Our athletes could not do what we had planned. All our efforts did not go the way we wanted. It is the first time we suffered such a bad result,” Khang said.

“We have trained hard with good results but failed here. We want to say sorry to national fans,” he said and added that time was need to discover the main problem. “We will recover from this loss and come back stronger in the future.”

Vietnamese athletes also competed in swimming and gymnastics on the second day of competition.

Nguyen Thi Anh Vien swam in the women’s 400m freestyle event. She finished her race with a time of 4min 16.32sec in the eighth position.

The result was worse than Vien’s best of 4:07.96 that she had achieved at the Arena Pro Swim Series earlier this year.

Vien has two events of 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley in the coming days.

Hoang Quy Phuoc finished the men’s 200m freestyle event’s second heat in 1:50.39, coming in seventh place and failing to qualify for the final. At last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, Phuoc had set a record with a time of 1:48.96.

Gymnast Phan Thi He Thanh earned 13.800 points in the balance beam event and 14.233 points in the vault event. Both scores were lower than what she had achieved at the Varna World Challenge Cup three months ago (14.367 points and 14.400 points, respectively), which had helped her to win two silver medals.

She will compete in two other events, but will have no chance to make it to the last eight.

After two days, the United States are on top of the medal table with three gold, five silver and four bronze medals, followed by China and Australia.

Vietnam, with a shooting gold medal, are in 13th position. 

VNS