Vietnam has targeted two badminton berths to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, according to local newspaper Saigon Liberation on Tuesday.

 

Vietnam's top badminton male player Nguyen Tien Minh, who is ranked 38th in the world, is sure to win a berth to the global sports event.

 

He will take part in the qualifying round of 2008 Thomas-Uber Cup, Asian zone, in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City in mid-February, Germany Open in late February, Switzerland's Super Serie in mid-March, an Indian tournament in early April, and the Badminton Asia Championship 2008.

 

Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung, who is ranked the 89th in the world, will find it hard to grab the second berth. To do this, she should have good results in the upcoming international badminton tournaments.

 

If Nhung is in the world's top 60, she will secure the berth to the 2008 Olympic Games, the newspaper said.

 

Vietnam plans to win 20 berths in 13-14 sports events, including track and field, weightlifting, swimming, springboard, shooting, badminton and apparatus gymnastics, to the global games.

 

To date, three Vietnamese athletes, all taekwondo fighters -- Nguyen Van Hung, Hoang Ha Giang and Nguyen Hoai Thu -- have secured places at the Games slated for August in Beijing.

 

Vietnam won its first-ever Olympic medal with 26-year-old woman athlete Tran Hieu Ngan taking a taekwondo silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)