Vietnam Taekwondo Association will award taekwondo gold medalist in the upcoming Beijing Olympics with US$30,000, local newspaper the Youth reported Monday.

Silver medalist will receive 20,000 dollars and bronze medalist 10,000 dollars, according to the association.

Vietnam has sent three players to participate in the 80kg, 57kg and 49kg weight categories in the Olympics. All these players are doing fine and they are capable of grabbing medals, said the association.

Vietnam participated in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1980, and won its first-ever Olympic medal, a silver medal, in 2000 with woman taekwondo player Tran Hieu Ngan in the 57kg category.

Vietnam eyes for three medals at this year's Olympics. Besides taekwondo, it also wants to grab medals in the badminton and weightlifting.

Vietnamese weightlifter Hoang Anh Duan said he would try his best to perform at the Beijing Olympics and might took the audience by surprise.

Nguyen Tien Minh, the best badminton player in Vietnam, said recently that he feels very excited to go face-to-face with world top players in the Beijing Olympics.

He expects to go into the final rounds and has the opportunity to challenge world best players like Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai from China.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)