Vinh grabs silver at men’s 50m pistol

Full concentration: Hoàng Xuân Vinh in the final round of the men’s 50m pistol event at the ongoing Rio Olympics. Photo taken from live VTV6 broadcast

The 41-year-old army colonel scored 191.3 while his South Korean competitor Jin Jong-oh grabbed the gold medal with 193.7 points. Kim Song-uk, from North Korea won the bronze medal with 172.8 points.

With his success, Vinh has become the first ever Vietnamese athlete to grab one gold and one silver medal at the Olympic Games.

On August 7, Vinh grabbed the first Olympic gold medal for Việt Nam in any sport, winning the men’s 10-metre air pistol event.

In the qualifying round yesterday, Vinh scored low in his first shooting series with a total of 90 points. In his second shooting series, he managed a better score of 93 points. He got 91 points in the third round. The fourth round resulted in 92 points and a ranking of 21 out of 41. After his fifth series with 95 points, he gained 12th position. At the final series, Vinh got 94 points with two final shots scoring 10. With this result he ranked 6th and passed through to the final round.

His fellow Trần Quốc Cường got 542 points and ranked 31st in the qualifying round.

The qualifying round gathered a total of 41 athletes from 29 countries.

On August 7, Vinh grabbed the first Olympic gold medal winning the men’s 10-metre air pistol event. He scored 202.5 points, breaking the previous Olympic record.

Earlier, Hòang Xuân Vinh gained fame among his fellow shooting athletes by winning silver at the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup’s men’s 50m pistol in Germany in 2015 with a borrowed gun.

Vinh arrived in Munich and waited for several days but his weapon did not arrive.

Vinh considered withdrawing from the tournament on the day before the event when he knew that the gun would not arrive on time.

However, the Vietnamese decided to ask other marksmen to borrow their guns but they all refused.

Disappointed, Vinh had no choice but to ask companies who had exhibited their guns at the event. Five declined as their products were for display and sale.

The owner of the sixth company, a former shooter who knew Vinh and other Vietnamese athletes, gave him a gun on the condition that Vinh would pay for any damage to the weapon.

Vinh then used his own money to buy bullets to prepare for the competition.

The soldier successfully entered the final with the out-of-the-box pistol, without a custom grip and adjustments. He lost to China’s Zhang Bowen on the last shot, taking second place.

Vinh said it was the most memorable medal of his career.

Earlier, Vinh won gold in the 50m pistol at the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore and two bronzes in the World Cup in South Korea and the United States.

He ranked fourth at the London Games in 2012 with only 0.1 point less than the bronze medalist.

Before Vinh, the highest achievements by Vietnamese athletes were two silvers by Trần Hiếu Ngân in Taekwondo in 2000 and Hòang Anh Tuấn in wrestling in 2008.