Vietnam’s Linh eases to win first Olympic badminton game

Linh, the world number 26, faced little difficulty against Ho who stands 55 places below her in the rankings and needed only 30 minutes to wrap up the match.

She will next play American Beiwen Zhang who is the tournament’s number nine seed and world number 11 on July 31.

It will be their second meeting in career. In the first time last October, Linh won 17-21, 21-12, 24-22 at the Finland’s Arctic Open. Zhang defeated Ho 21-10, 21-4 in the group’s first match on July 29.

The winner of the July 31 game will qualify for the knockout stage.

In swimming, after his disappointing disqualification in the men’s 800m style on July 29, swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang and his coach gave their explanations.

Hoang finished his race in a time of 8min 8.39sec, 20 seconds slower than the heat winner and 19 seconds under his personal best. His poor performance was in spite of spending months training intensively in Hungary.

“I have to admit that I swam poorly. But it is the fact that international swimmers are very powerful. They are tall and big and physically strong. They also own good technique too,” said Hoang.

“I have tried my best to improve my ability but they do it better. I am overwhelmed with their level and it strongly affects my performance.”

Coach Nguyen Hoang Vu said he was surprised with the result.

“As his coach, it is my responsibility for this failure. It seems that I have not well prepared stable mentality for him when competing at this large arena,” he said. “It is true that we are little shocked when witnessing international swimmers’ great results.”

Vu added that Hoang, 2018 Youth Olympics champion, did try hard but he could not narrow the gap with his rivals. The 24-year-old will take part in the 1,500m freestyle on August 3.