Trinh Thu Vinh misses out on women’s 25m pistol medal at ASIAD 20

On the afternoon of September 28, Vietnamese shooter Trinh Thu Vinh produced a determined performance in the women’s 25m pistol final.

Unlike the qualification round, where results are determined by aggregate score, the final is decided by the number of successful hits. Each series consists of five shots, with the lowest-ranked shooters being progressively eliminated after successive rounds.

Thu Vinh opened with three hits in her first series and had nine after three series. As the elimination stage began, she raised her total first to 14 and then to 18 hits.

After 30 shots, she had recorded 23 hits. She then delivered an excellent series, hitting all five shots to  bring her total to  28 hits after 35 attempts. That performance  put her in joint second   place  with China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan, just one hit behind  the  leader Kim Hyon Suk of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

However, as the medal race entered its decisive stage, Thu Vinh was unable to sustain  this level of performance. She managed only two hits in her next five-shot series, while her direct rivals produced stronger results.

The Vietnamese shooter finished with 30 hits from 40 shots, placing fourth and missing out on a medal.

It was a disappointing outcome, given that Thu Vinh had moved very close to the medal positions and  had  trailed the leader by only a single hit at one point. Nevertheless, finishing fourth in such a  competitive final further demonstrated her ability in the women’s 25m pistol final. 

Earlier, Thu Vinh had impressed in the qualifying round. Across the  60 shots  of  the precision and rapid-fire stages, she scored 585 points to finish third and secure her place in the final.

In the precision stage on September 27, she scored 291 points. She followed that with a steady 294 out of 300 in the rapid-fire stage on the morning of September 28.

Qualification scores were used only to determine the eight finalists and were not carried over into the final.

There was a major surprise  in the qualification round, too, when Yang Jiin of the Republic of Korea, the  reigning Paris 2024 Olympic champion, scored 575 points, finished 16th, and failed to advance.

Earlier at ASIAD 20, Thu Vinh teamed up with Nguyen Thuy Trang and Nguyen Thuy Dung to win bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol team event with a combined score of 1,719 points.