Phan Thị Hà Thanh

Phan Thị Hà Thanh
— Gymnast —
Full name	Phan Thị Hà Thanh
Country represented	Vietnam
Born	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 Representing  Vietnam World Championships 2011 Tokyo Vault Asian Games 2014 Incheon Balance Beam 2014 Incheon Vault Asian Championships 2012 Putian Vault 2008 Doha Vault Southeast Asian Games 2003 Hanoi Team 2007 Khorat Vault 2011 Palembang All-Around 2011 Palembang Vault 2011 Palembang Floor Exercise 2015 Singapore All-Around 2015 Singapore Vault 2015 Singapore Balance Beam 2005 Manila Team 2007 Khorat Team 2011 Palembang Balance Beam 2015 Singapore 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] She went on to compete at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium and qualified to the Individual Vault final. In the final competition, she attempted a higher difficulty vault (Yurchenko entry with 2.5 twists stretched) but fell and finished seventh.

In 2014, she began by winning a World Cup title on the balance beam in Osijek. During the At the 2014 Asian Games - Women's Artistic in Incheon, South Korea, she qualified to three event finals, Vault, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise. She finished 3rd behind Oksana Chusovitina and Hong Un-Jong, the current World Champion, during the Vault final. She finished 2nd on Balance Beam behind Kim Un-Hyang of North Korea and 8th on Floor Exercise. Two weeks after the Asian Games, she competed at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China. During the qualification round, she qualified for the Individual Vault final, but finished 8th with major errors during the final competition.

In 2015, she won Balance Beam titles at two World Cup events (Doha, Qatar and Varna, Bulgaria) in the spring. Under pressure to medal in the Team event at the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, she went on to lead a minimal team of 4 gymnasts (full teams consisted of 6 gymnasts) with Do Thi Van Anh, Do Thi Thu Huyen and newcomer Long Thi Ngoc Huynh where the team was plagued with injuries and finished a disappointing 4th. However, Phan managed to qualify for all of the individual events. She went on to win the most gold medals of any gymnast at the Games (Individual All-Around, Vault and Balance Beam) and a bronze on Floor Exercise. Nursing a number of injuries, she competed in the qualification round at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland where she would finish 85th in the All-Around Qualification (51.033 total - 14.400 on Vault (47th), 10.233 on Uneven Bars (193rd), 13.300 on Balance Beam (58th) and 13.100 on Floor Exercise (84th)). Because of her injuries, she opted not to attempt a second vault to potentially qualify her for the Vault final.

References

1. "Gymnast Wins Vietnam’s First World Medal in Gymnastics". Veryvietnam.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
2. "41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 Artistic Gymnastics Women All-Around Final". Gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved 9 February 2015. line feed character in |title= at position 50 (help)
3. Colomer, Albert Minguillon I. (16 November 2010). "More gold for China in Asian Games Event Finals". The-all-around.com. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
4. "Gymnastics - Phan Thi Ha Thanh". The-sports.org. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
5. "43rd ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
6. Lawrence, Blythe (15 October 2011). "MARONEY WINS VAULT TITLE, KOMOVA GOLDEN ON BARS". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
7. Turner, Amanda (28 March 2013). "Five Take Titles at Doha World Challenge Cup". International Gymnast Magazine. Retrieved 21 April 2013.