Examining the strength of Trinh Thu Vinh's opponents in the Olympic shooting final

On July 27, shooter Trinh Thu Vinh officially won 1 of 8 tickets to the finals of the women's 10m air pistol event. She finished 6 series with a total of 578 points, ranking 4th.

The 8 athletes participating in the final of the 2024 Olympic women's 10m air pistol event are:

The qualifying round of the women's 10m air pistol event witnessed many surprises, when the reigning runner-up Antoaneta Kostadinova (Bulgaria) only finished in 16th place.

Of the eight finalists, only three are in the world's top 10: Jiang Ranxin (China - 3rd), Kim Ye-ji (Korea - 7th) and Li Xue (China - 10th). However, all three of these players performed worse than Trinh Thu Vinh in the qualifying round.

The Vietnamese female shooter's most formidable opponent in the final is Hungary's Veronika Major. In 2023 alone, this athlete won 3 gold medals in the women's air pistol events of the ISSF Shooting World Cup.

In September 2023, Major continued to win the national shooting championship at the 25m air pistol distance. She is the leading hope of the Hungarian Sports Delegation at the 2024 Olympics.

Manu Bhaker is also a name that Thu Vinh must be wary of. The Indian shooter is only 22 years old but has won 15 gold medals in his career.

In the 2018 Asian Games qualifiers, Bhaker scored a record 593 points in 60 shots in the women's 25m air pistol event. In the same year, she became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games.

The gold medal at the 2024 Shooting World Cup (Baku) helped Bhaker qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Vietnam's medal chances

Trinh Thu Vinh of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation has also been in very good form in the past 2 years. She excellently entered the top 5 in the women's 10m air pistol event at the 2023 World Championship, winning a ticket to the 2024 Olympics.

In early 2024, the Thanh Hoa native won a gold medal at the Asian Championship.

She continued her form in Paris, as evidenced by her performance in the Olympic qualifiers. Thu Vinh was the athlete with the second most hits (26), only behind India's Manu Bhaker (27).

In the fifth round, she made 10 consecutive 10-point shots, earning a perfect 100 points. Only Prucksakorn Tanyaporn of Thailand achieved the same result in the fourth round.

To create an earthquake in Paris, Thu Vinh needs to keep her mind stable.

In the qualifying round, the Thanh Hoa native only scored 7 points with one shot, right after completing a perfect 5-point series (100 points). 3 rounds later, she continued to make an unfortunate 8-point shot.

The audience also noticed this problem in the second round. Thu Vinh scored 9 consecutive 10s, but did not score any 10s in the next 6 shots (including 1 8).

If she hadn't made 7 or 8 point errors, Thu Vinh would have definitely finished in first place in the qualifying round. Therefore, with just a little improvement in mentality and a little luck, the Vietnamese shooter would have a good chance of winning a medal.