Vietnam gets milestone gold

Hoang Xuan Vinh of Vietnam reacts during the awarding ceremony of the Men's 10m Air Pistol Finals of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug 6, 2016.[Photo/Xinhua]

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The 41-year-old veteran Hoang Xuan Vinh won the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Vietnam after claiming the men's 10m air pistol event in the 2016 Rio Olympics here on Saturday.

Brazilian marksman Almeida Felipe Wu finished with the silver and the bronze medal went to Chinese shooter Pang Wei.

It was the second Olympics for Hoang. He wasn't far from winning a medal four years ago in London, where he lost to the 50m pistol bronze medalist by a tiny margin of 0.1 point.

Hoang shot 581 points to get the fourth place in the qualification stage. He did a good job in the first six shots of the final stage, collecting 61.9 points to stand at the second place.

Hoang shot well in the following six shots, widening the gap to as huge as 2.3 points with six shots left. However, Wu began to fight back in the following five shots, and he successfully moved to the first place with one shot left, 0.2 points ahead of Hoang.

The breath-taking final shot saw a 10.1 performance from Wu, and Hoang erased all the pressure to get 10.7. The 202.5 points was enough for Hoang to get the title. Wu finished with 202.1 points. Pang wrapped up with 180.4 points.

"I'm happy that I can get the first Olympic gold for Vietnam," said Hoang after the match. "It will be my life-time memory."

Vietnam has won two Olympic silvers prior to the 2016 Games, one from weightlifting and the other from taekwondo.

"The qualification wasn't so good, I knew it was enough for the final," said Wu about his performance.

"I'm shooting some good finals this year and I'm very confident with that."

Pang's bronze was the third medal for the Chinese shooting team.

"My goal is always the champion," said the 2008 Olympic gold medalist, "I didn't do well in the beginning few shots in the final. I tried to move on but I was just too far behind."