The determination to regain what was lost after a 4-year sentence will be the spiritual motivation for Trinh Van Vinh, and also the last hope for the Vietnamese sports delegation at this Olympics.
The 2024 Paris Olympics are coming to an end, and Vietnamese sports only have two athletes left: Trinh Van Vinh (weightlifting, men's 61kg category) and Nguyen Thi Huong (canoeing, women's C1 200m rowing).
Nguyen Thi Huong is still immature in her first time participating in the Olympics, the only hope for a medal is Van Vinh with a position in the top 6 in the world currently.
At 8:00 p.m. today (August 7), Trinh Van Vinh will compete in the finals of the men's 61kg weightlifting event. There are 12 athletes competing in the 61kg category and according to the registered weight, they are divided into 3 groups.
The top group with a total of 310kg includes Li Fabin (China), Eko Irawan (Indonesia) and Sergio Massidda (Italy). Next, Trinh Van Vinh and Ivan Dimov (Bulgary) lead group 2 with 303kg, slightly higher than John Ceniza (Philippines, 300kg), Mohamad Bin Kasdan (Malaysia, 298kg), Theerapong Silachai (Thailand, 294kg).
The final group consists of 4 athletes with a registration weight of 290kg or less.
Among them, the 31-year-old Chinese weightlifter currently holds both the world record (318kg) and the Olympic record (313kg) and is the "lone undefeated" in this weight class.
Li Fabin has won the world, Asian, World Cup titles, won the ASIAD Gold Medal, is the reigning Olympic champion and also just finished first in the qualifying round in April.
Another name that has received high praise from experts is Eko Irawn. The 1989-born athlete from the Land of Islands is the current Olympic runner-up and has an admirable record of participating in the Olympics for the 5th time in his career.
In the previous four editions, Eko won medals, with 2 Bronze medals in Beijing (2008), London (2012) and 2 Silver medals in Rio (2016), Tokyo (2021).
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Trinh Van Vinh will also meet many familiar opponents when 5 out of 12 names come from Southeast Asia. Their presence is both an advantage and a pressure for Van Vinh because up to this point, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia have all won medals.
Van Vinh must both try to find his own medal and help Vietnamese sports avoid going empty-handed at the Games.
According to experts' predictions, except for Li Fabin, who is the most promising candidate for the Gold medal, the race for the remaining 2 positions in the top 3 will be very tense.
At least 7 names including Trinh Van Vinh are capable of causing surprises despite the different advantages in terms of experience, fitness and youth. The chance of winning medals is equally divided among the group but with that comes the risk of falling behind if they cannot make a breakthrough in their achievements.
Looking at the two most recent major tournaments, the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympic qualifiers, the top three lifters all had a total lift of 301kg or more. Thus, this achievement is also considered a necessary condition for a weightlifter to have any hope of competing for a medal.
Van Vinh himself has many times surpassed the 300kg total lift mark. In particular, at the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia, Van Vinh achieved a total lift of 307kg (135kg snatch, 172kg clean and jerk) when competing in the 62kg category.
At the Asian Indoor Games that same year, he won the Gold medal with 302kg and was also runner-up in the 2018 Asian Games with 299kg.
From a total lift of 292kg at the world championship last September, and then at the 19th Asian Games, Van Vinh achieved 294kg at the most recent tournament.
Among them, his snatch performance has also improved recently from 128, 129 to 131kg. His clean and jerk results range from 161kg to 164kg.
More than anyone, Van Vinh understands that surpassing 300kg is a necessary condition for him to compete for a medal right after being named in the 2024 Olympics list. He shared: "Looking at my opponents' achievements, I think I have to have an achievement of 300-305kg to be able to think about competing for a medal."
At the age of 29, Van Vinh does not have much time left at the Olympics. His determination to compete in what could be his last tournament at the highest level, his determination to regain what he lost after a 4-year ban, will be the spiritual motivation for Trinh Van Vinh, and also the last hope for the Vietnamese sports delegation at this Olympics./.
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