HA NOI — Seventeen-year-old taekwondo artist Nguyen Thanh Thao, bagged a silver medal in the women's 55kg category at the Youth Olympics, Singapore.
Thao lost 6-9 to Jade Jones of Wales after a tense four-round final.
The Vietnamese teenager had a poor start trailing 3-1 to Jones in the first round, but she then pulled back two points to draw 3-3 in the second round.
Jones then dominated in the first minutes of the third round when she led 6-4 with a flurry of accurate kicks on the head. However, Thao fought back to tie 6-6 again to take the final to tie-breaking round.
She suffered a sudden kick in the first seconds in the extra-time round and lost 6-9 finally.
Viet Nam's 13-member squad has now won one gold, one silver and one bronze medals to rank 14th at the games.
On Sunday, Vietnamese weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan triumphed in the men's 56kg category to take the first gold for Viet Nam, while taekwondo artist Nguyen Quoc Cuong took a bronze medal in the men's 55kg category on Tuesday.
Britain's David Bolarinwa and Jamaica's Odane Skeen won their qualifying heats in the 100m at the Youth Olympics yesterday, setting up a much anticipated final between two sprinters touted as the next Usain Bolt.
Bolarinwa blew away the field in his heat, finishing in 10.62sec. Skeen got out slowly but surged to beat Thailand's Jirapong Meenapra.
The 17-year-old Bolarinwa has the fastest time this year among 16 – and 17-year-old – a 10.39 in London earlier this month. Skeen, a 16-year-old whose lanky style has some likening him to his compatriot Bolt, ran a 10.46 in Jamaica.
"I thought let me go there, go hard and see if anyone can go faster," Bolarinwa said. "It was a good performance overall."
Skeen was less thrilled with his performance, blaming his slower time on two false starts by other competitors. But he said he would win in the Saturday's final.
Bolarinwa and Skeen will face each other for the first time and are still sizing one another up. Skeen, for example, was surprised to hear that it was Bolarinwa and not himself who has run the fastest 100 this year. Marvin Bracy of the US ran the second fastest but is not at the games.
Organisers of the first Youth Olympics have emphasised participation rather than winning, but that was lost on Bolarinwa and Skeen, who both predicted they would win on Saturday.
"It's a big showdown," Bolarinwa said. "He's not really a quick starter. We know that already," Bolarinwa said. "His pick up is fantastic and so is mine. If I get a good start, he'll have to take me."
Bolarinwa's coach John Powell chimed in later: "Bring it on."
Relish
Both boys seemed to relish the comparison to Bolt and their budding rivalry to that of Bolt and Tyson Gay. Told he has been compared to a miniature Bolt, Skeen just smiled and said he one day dreams of surpassing his idol.
"I want to be better than Bolt," said Skeen, whose goal is to win gold at the 2012 Olympics in London. "I want to be much more faster."
Bolarinwa enjoyed being likened to the two sprinting greats, but wants to surpass them.
"These guys are fantastic. You look at what they have done. You want to be better than them," Bolarinwa said. "But it's good to have them in the back your mind to look up to."
Watching Skeen's heat, Powell said he saw some of Bolt in Skeen. But he was quick to point out that a lot can change with an athlete by the time they reach adulthood. He noted that Bolt, for example, started out running 200 – and 400-meter before exploding on the stage in the 100.
"You don't know how they will develop, this is the thing," Powell said of Skeen. "He's about 16 and that is two or three years of formative years as an athlete. He could broaden out. He obviously has a good stride. If I looked at him – not that you can stereotype athletes these days – I'd say he is a typical 200m runner."
In other action yesterday, Lithuania rower Rolandas Mascinskas upset Germany's two-time world junior champion German Felix Bach to win the junior men's single sculls gold.
In the women's single sculls, Judith Sievers of Germany beat Nataliia Kovalova of the Ukraine. Britain beat out Australia for the women's pair final to claim its second gold in two days and Slovenia edged Greece in the men's final.
In men's weightlifting, Russia's Artem Okulov took gold ahead of Thailand's Chatuphum Chinnawong. Russia have eight golds and 16 overall, while China have nine gold and 14 medals overall. Azerbaijan are third with five golds, while Italy have three.
The US had only one gold medal by the end of Tuesday, settling for silver in girl's swimming, boy's wrestling and boy's fencing.
Liberian swimmers Sima Weah and Mika-Jah Teah managed an unusual first. Competing in the 50 freestyle heat, they both acknowledged this was the first time they had raced in a pool. Until now, they had trained in a river near the capital Monrovia, forced to dodge crabs and kismet fish.
They finished 24 seconds behind the fastest qualifiers, but coach Steven Weah said he was happy they had travelled to the games to compete.
"I am proud of them because this is their first appearance in international competition," he told the Youth Olympics news service, adding there are no pools for them to train in Liberia. — AP/VNS
