Gymnasts, track-and-field athletes steal Vietnam’s gold show at SEA Games

Team Vietnam jumped to second place in the medal tally at the 2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Malaysia after winning a dozen gold medals on Wednesday.

The medal haul at the end of the fourth day of competitionput Vietnam’s total medal count at 28 golds, 19 silvers, and 22 bronzes, far behind host team Malaysia whose 111 medals include 47 golds.

The Vietnamese track-and-field athletes and their four gold medal performances put them in the spotlight for Wednesday.

Vu Thi Men took first place in the women’s triple jump while sprinters Duong Van Thai and Vu Thi Ly topped the men’s and women’s 800m events, respectively.

Sprinter Tu Chinh won the women’s 200m with a time of 23.32 seconds, only one day after smashing a SEA Games record to win the 100m event.

Fans and experts believe Chinh, a 20-year-old athlete making her first SEA Games appearance, will become Vietnam’s new ‘queen of speed’ – a title awarded only to those who bring home the gold in both the 100m and 200m races.

Vietnam’s sprinter Le Tu Chinh poses with her women’s 200m gold medal.

The Vietnamese gymnastics team also caught fans’ attention on Wednesday with their three gold medals.

Le Thanh Tung won both the men’s vault and high bar events, while his teammate Dinh Phuong Thanh bagged the men’s parallel bar gold.

Besides the seven gold medals in gymnastics and track-and-field, Vietnam also won one gold each in cycling, fencing and shooting, and two gold medals in karate-do on Wednesday.

In the swimming competitions, both Vietnamese hopefuls Nguyen Thi Anh Vien and Hoang Quy Phuoc finished just shy of gold in their respective events.

Vien finished second in the women’s 100m freestyle event, while Phuoc took home silver in the men’s 200m freestyle event.

Vietnam’s male gymnastics team

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