Facing Indonesia’s Fereddy Sinaga in the last four, Van Tam delivered a 2-0 victory to book his place in the gold-medal bout. The result guarantees the Vietnamese fighter at least a silver medal.

Van Tam will take on China’s Ou Jiaming in the final.

Earlier in the day, veteran Duong Thuy Vi opened Vietnam’s wushu medal account with bronze in the women’s combined jianshu and qiangshu event. She scored 9.703 points in jianshu and 9.710 in qiangshu to finish third overall, behind competitors from China and Japan.

The medal adds to the 1993-born athlete’s impressive Asian Games record, which includes a gold medal at the 2014 Games in Incheon.
Vietnam’s sanda fighters then added three more bronzes.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy finished third in the women’s 60kg category after losing to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu in the semifinals, while Hua Van Doan took bronze in the men’s 60kg class following a defeat to China’s Tang Sishuo.

Nguyen Khac Kien completed the wushu haul with bronze in the men’s 65kg category after falling to Iran’s Shoja Panahigelehkolaei in the semifinals.

The Vietnamese medal tally was further boosted by the shooting team. Bui Thuy Thu Thuy, Trinh Thu Vinh and Nguyen Thuy Trang combined for 1,719 points to claim bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol team event, finishing behind China and the Republic of Korea.

Nguyen Thuy Trang also advanced to the individual final, where she placed sixth with 159.7 points.

With five medals added on September 23, Vietnam’s delegation now has one gold and eight bronzes at ASIAD 20.

China continues to lead the medal race with 47 golds, followed by host Japan with 15, while Thailand is the highest-ranked Southeast Asian delegation with five golds./