The four Vietnamese "golden” rowing girls on the podium. (Photo: asiangames2018.id)

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As of 8.30 pm on Thursday evening, Vietnam had won one gold, four silver and seven bronze medals at the Games, ranking of 14th out of 45 countries and territories participating in the quadrennial event.

On late Thursday, Vietnam U23 team made history with its first entrance into the Asiad quarter-finals after winning 1- 0 against ten-man Bahrain U23 during their clash at Round of 16 for the men’s football. The only goal was scored by No. 9 striker Nguyen Cong Phuong in the 88th minute.

In the next round, coach Park Hang-seo and his players will encounter Syria U23, who defeated Palestine U23 with the same score. The match will take place at Patriot Chandrabhaga Stadium in Bekasi, West Java, on Monday evening.

On Thursday morning, the female rowing team, consisting of Luong Thi Thao, Ho Thi Ly, Ta Thanh Huyen, and Pham Thi Thao, demonstrated excellent performances at the women’s lightweight quadruple sculls event with 7:01.11 to secure the first gold medal for Vietnam. The team then received a reward of VND650 million the same day for their excellent results.

 Earlier, wushu martial artist Bui Truong Giang obtained a silver medal in the men's sanda 56 kg after losing 0-2 to Chinese player Shen Guoshun in the final. That means the final day for the Vietnamese wushu team at the Asiad ended without a gold medal.

Also on the morning of August 23, the country’s golden hope, taekwondo fighter Truong Thi Kim Tuyen, who is the defending Asian champion, suddenly lost to Japanese rival Miyu Yamada by 35 points at the qualification round.

In the evening session, Vietnamese athletes participated in two final events. Swimmer Le Nguyen Paul competed with seven rivals in men’s 50 m butterfly but he could only finish in the sixth place at 24:35. The gold medal went to Singapore's Olympic champion Joseph Schooling with a time of 23:61.

In addition, in the final of men's rings under artistic gymnastics, Vietnamese Dang Nam only made the fifth place among the eight finalists with a total score of 14.500.

Positives in the afternoon session came from the pencak silat team. Vietnamese martial artists on the first day of pencak silat competition won two semi-final berths, including Nguyen Duy Tuyen in men’s 85-90 kg and Nguyen Thi Cam Nhi in women’s 60-65 kg. The two Vietnamese fighters will play the semi-finals on August 26.