Hương, Huệ are Việt Nam’s next Paris Olympians

Olympics 

Nguyễn Thị Hương of Việt Nam (left) wins a silver in the women's C1 200m event of the 2024 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships and qualifies for the Paris Olympics. Photos of Việt Nam Sports Team

HÀ NỘI - Việt Nam will have a representative in canoeing at the Olympics for the first time in history this summer as Nguyễn Thị Hương officially secured her spot on Sunday.

Multi-time SEA Games champion Hương finished second in the women's C1 200m event of the 2024 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships with a time of 49.351sec. 

She was just a hair behind Nilufar Zokirova of Uzbekistan. 

Mariya Brovkova of Kazakhstan came third on 49.423sec.

In this event, the two top spots win tickets to the Paris Games.

Hương, 23, has opened a new chapter in Việt Nam's canoeing as she is the first Olympic canoeist in history.

This was her second silver in this championship. Earlier, in pair with Nguyễn Hồng Thái, she came second in the women's C2 500m event.

Phạm Thị Huệ will compete in the Paris Olympics after her successful qualification round performance on April 21 in South Korea 

Hours after Hương, Phạm Thị Huệ secured her own Olympic spot in rowing.

Huệ was among Vietnamese athletes at the World Rowing Asian and Oceanian Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in South Korea. 

Huệ competed against five athletes from Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Iran and Uzbekistan in the women's single sculls event.

The SEA Games reigning champion placed fifth, enough for her to qualify for the Paris Games.

Earlier, Huệ, one of Việt Nam's the most experienced rowers, also qualified for the Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020. However, at these times Việt Nam had more than one qualified slot and under the rules a country could only choose one; Huệ was not picked.

Currently, Việt Nam has nine athletes set to compete in Paris. The seven others are cyclist Nguyễn Thị Thật, shooters Trịnh Thu Vinh and Lê Thị Mộng Tuyền, boxer Võ Thị Kim Ánh, swimmer Nguyễn Huy Hoàng, weightlifter Trịnh Văn Vinh and badminton player Nguyễn Thùy Linh. VNS