While becoming an Olympic medalist has proved beyond the reach of every athlete of Team Vietnam at the London 2012 Olympic Games, which wrapped up Sunday, most considered it a chance to improve their own results, and some were able to, while for others even that target was unreachable. Team Vietnam, consisting of 18 athletes competing in 11 sports, had a fruitless London Games, even though they were the largest-ever delegation the country has sent to an Olympic event. Their failure at the globe’s largest sporting event, where the US topped the world with 46 gold medals, is seen as part of a decline in Vietnamese sport over the last few years. Weightlifter Tran Le Quoc Toan was the team’s most impressive athlete, as he managed to best his own result by lifting a total weight of 284kg to rank fourth at the men’s 56kg event. Prior to this achievement, Toan’s best result was 280kg, which helped him snatch a gold medal at the 2011 SEA Games.Shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh also impressed local viewers with his dazzling performance, which left him in fourth place in the men’s 50m pistol event, just 0.1 point behind the bronze medalist. Teenage swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien and race walker Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc also exerted huge effort to improve their own results. The last Vietnamese Olympic hopeful to compete, Phuc failed to bring home a medal for the country, but managed to smash Vietnam’s national record during her women’s 20km race walk event. The 21-year-old stopped the clock at 1h33m36s, ranked 36th out of 55 contenders who managed to pass the finish line. Her time was far better than the 1h35m she accomplished at the 2012 Asian championship. And that’s all for the good news. Along with the achievements described above, many Vietnamese athletes are going home with disappointment as their performances fell short of expectations.Failure and disappointmentBadminton player Nguyen Tien Minh, the world number 11, is seen as the largest failure as he was unable to make it through the qualification round, and was defeated by a rival who ranks 10 places lower than him on the world tally. The taekwondo events saw Le Huynh Chau quickly lose to a Taiwanese opponent against whom he had previously secured two victories, while his female teammate Chu Hoang Dieu Linh was also trounced 1 – 13 by a German rival.High jumper Duong Thi Viet Anh even failed to reach her normal result of 1.92, as she only managed to clear the 1.8m bar. And all three Vietnamese gymnasts performed below par as well.A number of Vietnamese hopefuls had to end their London journey after the very first round of competition, such as judoka Van Ngoc Tu, shooter Le Thi Hoang Ngoc, fencer Nguyen Tien Nhat, and wrestler Nguyen Thi Lua.