Vietnamese win two golds in vault
Vietnamese gymnasts won two gold medals and one silver at the 2012 Ostrava World Cup, also known as the Ostrava Grand prix, which wrapped up on November 24 in the Czech Republic.
Vietnam’s top female gymnast Pham Thi Ha Thanh took home the women’s vault title with 13.963 points, outscoring the runners up Barbara Achondo Andino and Makarena Pinto Adasme, both from Chile.
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Haiphong-born Thanh won gold in the same event at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Fujian, China, earlier this month after defeating two strong rivals from North Korea by a large margin, the first gold medal from that tournament ever to be won by a Vietnamese gymnast. Thanh represented the country this summer at the 2012 London Olympics.
Meanwhile, male gymnast Nguyen Ha Thanh followed own China success, where he won silver and bronze by securing one gold and one silver in his favourite events this weekend. He finished ahead of Poland’s Marek Lyszczarz and Austrian Michael Fussenegger in the men’s vault, but just missed out to Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev in the parallel bars.
In the women’s other events, Kristyna Palasova, representing the hosts, won both the uneven bars and balance beam titles. Barbara Achondo Andino also picked up a gold medal for her floor exercise performance, finishing ahead of Austrian Lisa Ecker and Ukrainian Krystyna Sankova.
In the men’s other events, Japan’s Ryuzo Sejima won the floor exercise ahead of Brazilian Arthur Nabarrete Zanetti and Greek star Eleftherios Kosmidis. Andrey Likhovitskiy of Belarus took the pommel horse honours and Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece won the still rings title.