Silver success: Viet Nam's Nguyen Thi Hoa (left) blocks a shot during their women's sepak takraw match against China at the third Asian Beach Games in Haiyang on Tuesday. — AFP/VNA Photo

HA NOI — Viet Nam grabbed their first silver medal at the Asian Beach Games in the women's sepak takraw (rattan ball kicking) team event in Haiyang City, China on Tuesday.

The girls defeated their hosts 2-1 in the final match of the round-robin event. Earlier, they beat Indonesia 2-1 but lost 0-2 to Thailand who were crowned champions.

China and Indonesia shared third place.

"Winning the silver means that we have already fulfilled our target set before leaving for China. It [Asian Beach Games] is a tough tournament. We had little time to prepare while our sepak takraw team is young and inexperienced. However, I still hope that we can scoop up more medals in the next few days," Nguyen Thanh Lam, deputy head of the Viet Nam delegation said at the award ceremony.

In the beach handball event, the Vietnamese team booked a berth in the semi-final round after ranking second in Group A.

The team won three out of four matches against Turkmenistan, India and Japan. Their only loss was to Chinese Taipei.

Viet Nam will play China in today afternoon's first semi-final match. The other match is between Chinese Taipei and Thailand.

The beach competition has drawn 43 Asian teams competing in 13 events, with Viet Nam ranked 11th after grabbing one silver.

Hosts China top the medal tally with seven gold, five silver and six bronze awards, followed by Indonesia and South Korea.

The event will wrap up tomorrow. — VNS