The 24-year-old shooter excelled in qualifying for the above event with a fourth place - a result that allows her to dream of a medal.

"Queen of the qualifying round" class

25m sport pistol is not Thu Vinh's forte. At the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, Thu Vinh ranked 27th in the qualifying round of this event. And Thu Vinh's ticket to the Paris Olympics came from her 10m air pistol performance at the World Championships. According to the rules, she was allowed to participate in the 25m sport pistol event. But once again, Thu Vinh showed her great ability at the Olympics. The 25m sport pistol event is divided into 2 parts: slow fire (30 shots) and rapid fire (30 shots). After the slow fire event, Thu Vinh ranked 12th. And then she exploded in the rapid fire event to make a spectacular comeback. From the 31st to the 45th shot, Thu Vinh scored a series of 10 points. In the last 10 quick shots, she scored 9 10 points. In the end, Thu Vinh had 587 points, ranking 4th. Her achievement was only behind Veronika Major (Hungary, 592 points), Manu Bhaker (India, 590 points), Haniyeh Rostamiyan (Iran, 588 points). And higher than Zhao Nan (China, 586 points), Yang Jiin (Korea, 586 points), Jedzejewski (France, 585 points) and Morgan Abeln (USA, 585 points). Notably, Kim Yeji - the Korean shooter who won the silver medal in the 10m air pistol event was eliminated. Thu Vinh, Major and Bhaker were the 3 shooters who won tickets to the finals of both the 10m air pistol and 25m sport pistol events. The achievement shows the true class of the 24-year-old shooter.

Unpredictable finale

But from the qualifying round to the final are two different things. Major once topped the 10m air pistol qualifying round but then finished last in the final. The elimination format in the final puts the shooters under great pressure. Assessing Thu Vinh's chances in the final, former coach Nguyen Thi Nhung said: "Vinh's forte is still the 10m air pistol. In the qualifying round, Vinh's slow-fire performance was lower than in practice. But then, she excelled in the rapid-fire performance. We need Vinh to do well in the rapid-fire performance because the final competition format is similar. If Vinh achieves stability and calmness in the competition, rapid-fire is her forte." According to coach of the Vietnamese shooting team Tran Quoc Cuong, Thu Vinh is making remarkable progress in the rapid-fire performance. He said: "Only recently, Vinh has performed well in the fast shooting event. Before that, she was only strong in the slow shooting event. The only thing I worry about is that Vinh is still not stable when entering the final round. Regarding the opponents, I highly appreciate the Hungarian, French, Korean and Chinese shooters." In the 25m sport pistol event, according to the International Shooting Federation (ISSF), Thu Vinh is ranked 29th in the world. The highest ranking Thu Vinh has ever achieved at international competitions is 10th in the World Cup and 16th in Asia. But for a sport with many unexpected factors like shooting, statistics on rankings and past achievements do not mean much. Trinh Thu Vinh is almost the only athlete who can give Vietnamese sports a chance to win a medal at Paris 2024. But even if she fails, the 24-year-old female shooter still brings moments of suspense and anticipation - a feeling that is too rare for Vietnamese fans when watching the last two Olympics.