HA NOI – Viet Nam's great hope for an Olympic medal in gymnastics faded yesterday as its three hopefuls failed to qualify.

However, vaulter Phan Thi Ha Thanh still has a chance, thanks to the exclusion of one of the Canadian reservists from the finals.

Thanh was 12th in the rankings and should have automatically been out of the Games. (According to the rules, the eight top athletes progress to the finals and three following athletes are put in the reserve list.)

However, as the rules only allow two competitors from each country in the finals, one of the three Canadians, Kristina Vaculik, who came eleventh, lost her position.

Thanh was then asked to take her place. The vault final will take place on August 5.

Thanh ranked 71th out of 82 competitors in the women's floor exercise. She received a total of 12,466 points – 4,900 for difficulty and 7,566 for execution.

In the women's beam, Do Thi Ngan Thuong finished 70th out of 83 athletes. She only earned 11,966 points – 4,200 for difficulty and 7,766 for execution.

In the women's uneven bars, Thuong came 73rd out of 79 athletes. Her total points were 11,466 (4,300 for difficulty and 7,166 for execution).

Earlier, Pham Phuoc Hung came 19th among 71 athletes in the men's parallel bars. He received 6,800 for difficulty and 8,333 for execution for a total of 15,133 points.

His result in men's rings was no better when Hung finished 40th out of 68 athletes. He scored a total of 14,433 points (6,800 for difficulty and 7,633 for execution).

Top three qualifiers in the six events were:

Women's qualification: Vault: 1. McKayla Maraney (US) 15,800; 2 Sandra Raluca Izbasa (Romania): 15,316; 3 Maria Paseka (Russia) 15,049.

Floor exercise: 1 Alexandra Raisman (US) 15,325; 2 Sandra Raluca Izbasa (Romania) 15,066; 3 Vanessa Ferrari (Bulgaria) 14,900.

Beam: 1 Sui Lu (China) 15,400; 2 Victoria Komova (Russia) 15,266; 3 Gabriella Douglas (US) 15,266.

Uneven bars: 1 Elizabeth Tweddle (Great Britain) 16,133; 2 He Kexin (China) 15,966; 3 Victoria Komova (Russia) 15,833.

Men's qualification:

Parallel Bars: 1 Yusuke Tanaka (Japan) 15,866; 2 Kazuhito Tanaka (Japan): 15,725; 3 Feng Zhe (China) 15,633.

Rings: 1 Chen Yibing (China) 15,868; 2 Matteo Morandi (Italia) 15,766; 3 Aleksandr Balandin (Russia) 15,666

- VNS