En route to the title match, Phung recorded respective 3-0 and 6-3 victories over the Afghan and Jordanese competitors in the Round of 16 and quarterfinal. He held Yuldashev Daniyar of Kazakhstan to a 6-6 draw but claimed a final berth thanks to his better auxiliaries.
Other members of Vietnam’s karate team failed to make the overall podium on Saturday, with Nguyen Thi Phuong losing 1-4 to Lau Mo Sheung Grace from Hong Kong (China) in the women’s kata quarterfinal, while Nguyen Thi Hong Anh conceded 0-3 against Abbasali Hamideh of Iran in the women’s +68kg bronze medal match.
Vietnamese pencak silat fighters, including Nguyen Thai Linh, Hoang Thi Loan and Nguyen Van Tri, booked their places in the men’s Class C 55kg-60kg, women’s Class C 55kg-60kg and men’s Class J 90kg-95kg semifinals, correspondingly, following their respective 5-0 triumphs over Iran’s Havasi Hamed, Borre Precious Jade of the Philippines, and Amankulov Rashit of Kyrgyzstan.
Shooter Ha Minh Thanh failed to make the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol podium, finishing fourth overall with 20 points, 14 points behind the Chinese gold medalist, Yao Zhaonan, who also broke an Asiad record in this category.
As of 6pm today, the Vietnam sport delegation remained stuck at 17th place in the provisional medal table with a collection of one gold (rowing), seven silvers (one in rowing, two in wushu, two in weightlifting, one in swimming, and one in karate), and nine bronzes (three in wushu, one in swimming, two in shooting, one in jujitsu, one in sepak takraw, and one in taekwondo).
