AFP, Hanoi :
Vietnamese rejoiced Sunday after their country won its first ever Olympic gold medal, a victory made all the more sweeter by the fact that regional rival China was beaten along the way.
Hoang Xuan Vinh, a 41-year-old a serving army colonel who first learned to shoot with AK47 rifles, made history in Rio overnight when a near-perfect final shot in the men’s 10-metre air pistol clinched him gold.
Vietnamese state media reported that Vinh would receive $100,000 from the state on his return — a handsome sum in a country where the average annual income is around $2,100.
