Female boxer Kim Ngan won a ticket to the 2018 Youth Olympics
Female martial artist Ho Thi Kim Ngan excellently won a ticket to the 2018 Youth Olympics, after reaching the quarter-finals at the 2018 World Youth Taekwondo Championship held in Hammamet (Tunisia).
The 2018 World Junior Taekwondo Championships took place from April 6 to 13 in Hammamet (Tunisia) with the participation of 438 athletes from 111 countries, competing in 10 different weight categories. This is a qualifying tournament for athletes to participate in the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires (Argentina) next October.
 |
| Female martial artist Ho Thi Kim Ngan. |
According to the rules, the top 8 athletes in each weight class will qualify for the 2018 Youth Olympics, which means they must reach the quarterfinals. However, if a weight class has a host athlete competing, only 7 athletes will be accepted.
On the first day of competition, the Vietnamese taekwondo team had 3 athletes competing: Ho Thi Kim Ngan (under 49kg), Luong Ngoc Nhi (under 63kg female) and Le Minh Vuong (under 73kg male). As a result, Ngoc Nhi stopped before her opponent Kayir Ikra (Türkiye) with a score of 12-2, while Minh Vuong lost to Sofotasios Anargyros (Greece) with a score of 40-1.
Meanwhile, Kim Ngan has been racking up impressive victories. The 2001-born female boxer defeated Batista De Souza (Brazil) 12-1 in the opening match, defeated Hughes Roxana (Guatemala) 13-3 and defeated Pirseyidova Sevda (Azerbaijan) 25-13 to reach the quarter-finals.
In this weight class, the home team did not participate. Therefore, despite losing to Cao Zihan (China) 22-20 in the quarter-finals, Kim Ngan still won the first ticket to the 2018 Youth Olympics for Vietnam Taekwondo.
Ho Thi Kim Ngan is one of the great hopes of Vietnamese Taekwondo. In 2017, Ngan won the gold medal at the Southeast Asian Youth Championship, the gold medal at the Korean Taekwondo Open, and especially the gold medal at the World Youth Championship in 2016. This girl with a "huge" height of 1.8 m is currently ranked 6th in the world, after athletes from Cuba, Iran, England, Japan, and France.
Today (April 7), the Vietnamese taekwondo team will have three athletes competing: Do Thi Thanh Ngan (under 55 kg female), Le Thanh Nhan (under 55 kg male) and Pham Dang Quang (under 63 kg male).
