Vietnamese athletes did not earn a ticket to the Olympic Games, although they completed better than expected and reached the top 10 at the Asian 20km Race Walking Championship in Nomi, Japan, on March 19.

SEA Games champion Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc finished sixth in the women's category with a time of 1hr 45.45min. Teammate Nguyen Thi Van was fourth in the women's open at 1:56.35.

The winner was Gao Lan of China who walked 1:29.25. She was followed by Ayane Yanai of the host (1:30.58) and Indian Priyanka Priyanka (1:32.27).

None of them qualified for the Paris Olympics as the standard time is 1:29.20.

On the men's side, Nguyen Thanh Ngung came seventh with a time of 1:30.27 while SEA Games champion Vo Xuan Vinh was seventh in the men's open clocking in at 1:33.08.

Ngung cut seven minutes from his time compared to what he did last May to take a SEA Games bronze medal. Vinh meanwhile did not reach his best after he switched to compete in triathlons for months and just practised walking recently. He walked 0.76sec slower than in the SEA Games.

Akshdeep Singh from India (1:20.57), Choe Byeongkwang from the Republic of Korea (1:21.20) and Wen Yongjie from China (1:22:44) were the top three finishers.

The Olympic standard to beat for the men is 1:20.10.

The four athletes flew back home to continue training for the May SEA Games in Cambodia. Walk races will be held in Siem Reap on May 16./.

VNA/VNP