Phan Thị Hà Thanh

Phan Thị Hà Thanh
— Gymnast —
Full name	Phan Thị Hà Thanh
Country represented	Vietnam
Born	(1991-10-16) October 16, 1991 Hải Phòng
Hometown	Hải Phòng
Height	5 ft 1 in (1.55 m)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	International Senior Elite
Years on national team	14
World ranking	2 (Vault, 2013)
Medal record Artistic Gymnastics Competitor for  Vietnam World Championships Bronze 2011 Tokyo Vault Asian Games Silver 2014 Incheon Balance Beam Bronze 2014 Incheon Vault Asian Championships Gold 2012 Putian Vault Bronze 2008 Doha Vault Southeast Asian Games Gold 2007 Khorat Vault Gold 2011 Palembang All-Around Gold 2011 Palembang Vault Gold 2011 Palembang Floor Exercise

Phan Thị Hà Thanh (born 16 October 1991) is a Vietnamese artistic gymnast from Hải Phòng. In 2011 she became the first gymnast to win a world medal for Vietnam, winning the Bronze medal on Vault at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.^[1]

Career

On 14 October 2009 she made her international debut competing in the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships – Women's qualification in London, United Kingdom. She did not score high enough to qualify for any of the competitions.^[2]

On 16 November 2010 she competed at the 2010 Asian Games - Women's vault in Guangzhou, China for Vietnam, competing in the Team and Vault event where she finished in 5th place.^[3] She won a Silver Medal on Vault and on Balance Beam in the 2010 World Cup in Porto, Portugal.^[2][4]

On 15 October 2011 she won the Bronze medal on Vault at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.^[5][6] This qualified her as an individual gymnast at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic qualification in London, United Kingdom. She led a gold-silver sweep by Vietnam in the Women's All-Around competition at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, with teammate, Đỗ Thị Ngân Thương, and won titles on Vault and Floor Exercise as well as a bronze on Balance Beam. She went on to win the Vault title at the 2011 Toyota Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

At the 6th Doha FIG World Challenge Cup in Doha, Qatar on 28 March 2013, she placed first in the vault final ahead of Larisa Iordache and Giulia Steingruber with an average score of 14.825.^[7]

Currently, Thi is ranked 2nd on Vault in the FIG World Rankings (2013). In 2013 she competed at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium and qualified to vault final. In the final she had a poorly executed handspring front one and a half twist. She also debuted an amanar, but fell and finished seventh.

In 2014 was her breakout year. She began by winning her first World Cup title on the balance beam in Osijek. At the 2014 Asian Games - Women's Artistic in Incheon, South Korea, she qualified to three event finals, vault, beam and floor. On vault she competed well and finished 3rd behind Oksana Chusovitina and Hong Un-Jong, the current World Champion. On beam she finished second, arguably having her best routine so far. On floor after qualifying 3rd, she faltered and finished 8th. She was less successful at the World Championships, only 2 weeks after the Asian Games. She had major errors on beam and floor in the qualifications, two events where she was favored to make the finals for. She did however make the vault finals, but finished in last with mistakes.

References