Vietnam's gymnastics queen Phan Thi Ha Thanh has a ticket to the Olympics

One day after Pham Phuoc Hung opened the door for the Vietnamese gymnastics team at the pre-Olympic tournament in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), it was Phan Thi Ha Thanh's turn to complete the all-around event relatively well and also win a ticket to the 2016 Olympics.

Ha Thanh is competing in the balance beam event.

Because of the 10-hour time difference between the two countries, when Thanh competed in Brazil in the afternoon, it was still night in Vietnam. But a few hours before Thanh entered the competition, we repeatedly told the head of the delegation, Nguyen Kim Lan - General Secretary of the Vietnam Gymnastics Federation, to inform us immediately regardless of the result.

At 4:30 a.m. on April 18, our phones signaled a text message. Ms. Kim Lan typed this short message, but my heart burst with joy: Ha Thanh has won the ticket!

Thanh competed in the third group out of four groups of the tournament. According to the rules of the organizing committee, the women's all-around started first in the uneven bars - which is not Thanh's forte. Ms. Kim Lan recalled: "Entering the weakest subject right at the beginning, Thanh lost her composure a bit and did not compete as successfully as expected and achieved a low score: 11,600 points.

Because she used too much strength in the uneven bars, she was at a disadvantage when competing in the second event, the balance beam. Although this is Thanh's strength, she has not been able to perform at her best, so her performance is not solid. Because Ha Thanh still has a knee injury, the coaching staff has proactively reduced the difficulty of the movements to ensure safety because this tournament requires careful tactical calculations. The performance is a little less difficult, but the probability of safety is high because the performances need to be "clean, beautiful", stable, and have few negative points to be successful.

It was also the reasonable strategy that helped Thanh complete the test relatively well, although not yet perfect in terms of technique. Thanh was still penalized for errors when finishing the movements (Thanh did not land firmly), so the score was not high but still acceptable. Thanh's balance beam score was 13,800 points, while Thanh's ability could have been much higher.

Coach Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Ha Thanh.

The most regrettable thing was the vault because it did not perform as well as it did during the warm-up, so it was deducted for technique. Thanh only got 14,300. The score is not high and Thanh could have done better. The last event was the freestyle, Thanh got 13,000 points. Thanh's total score was 52,700 points. In short, although the score was not high, Thanh did not fail or fall in all 4 events. And importantly, she was in the top group to attend the Olympics."

Coach Nguyen Thanh Thuy also felt a little regretful: “After finishing the first event, Thanh had a cramped wrist, so the following events were not as good as expected. After finishing the events, Thanh was always sad and told me that he wished he had done better. However, despite the persistent knee injury that has plagued him since then, Thanh still won a ticket to the Olympics, which is a very commendable achievement for Thanh.

Before the tournament, every day, we had to choose and continuously adjust the exercises to be suitable because Thanh could not reach the best physical condition during the competition. Safety is always the top priority. Congratulations to Thanh for realizing his dream of going to the Olympics."

According to Thanh Nien