Celebrating Vietnam Sports Day March 27: Spreading the mass sports movement in Soc Trang province

Comrade Lam Thanh Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Soc Trang. Photo: THACH PICCH

Reporter:   Could you share a little about the meaning and importance of Vietnam Sports Day (March 27) for the sports movement of your province?

Comrade Lam Thanh Dung:   On January 29, 1991, the Council of Ministers issued Decision No. 25/CT on choosing March 27 as “Vietnam Sports Day”. Vietnam Sports Day is held annually to attract all classes of people to participate in the movement of physical training and healthy cultural and sports activities. Exercising brings many benefits not only to health but also to the spirit and society. Exercising helps improve endurance, muscle strength, flexibility and patience. It also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and mental health problems such as stress and anxiety.

Over the years of history, under the leadership and direction of the Party and the State, from the viewpoints, directives, plans and specific roadmaps, the sports sector of Vietnam in general and Soc Trang province's sports in particular have gradually developed and achieved many results in the regional and international arenas. Especially with traditional competitive sports, the advantages and heroic Vietnamese athletes have spread the image and raised the position of Vietnam in the international arena.

Reporter:   On the occasion of the Vietnam Sports Day this year, what activities does the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism have to promote the development of the provincial sports movement, sir?

Comrade Lam Thanh Dung:   The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued a plan for organizing provincial sports competitions in 2025. Thereby, it has organized sports activities according to the plan, such as: Lion dance - martial arts festival in the spring of At Ty and is currently organizing the Provincial Volleyball Championship. In addition, the department has issued documents guiding units to organize activities to celebrate the country's major holidays, especially implementing the province's 3 major plans on sports, period 2020 - 2030. That is the plan to organize a month of sports activities for everyone and the Olympic Running Day for the health of all people in Soc Trang province, period 2020 - 2030; Plan on implementing the campaign "All people practice physical exercise following the example of great Uncle Ho" in Soc Trang province, period 2021 - 2030 and plan on organizing sports activities to improve health for people in Soc Trang province by 2030.

Elderly people participate in a mass exercise performance. Photo: THACH PICCH

Reporter:   Looking back at 2024, what outstanding achievements has the Soc Trang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism achieved in development work?   Sports , sir?

Comrade Lam Thanh Dung:   In the past year, along with the development of the sports movement of everyone, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism also paid attention to organizing sports competitions for the masses, students, cadres, civil servants, armed forces, the elderly... which are increasingly expanding in scale, attracting many participants. Each unit, facility, and level knows how to exploit its strengths to improve the quality of organizing sports competitions.   One of the factors that strongly motivates the development of the sports movement in recent times is the system of organizing sports tournaments that has been increasingly improved, suitable to the actual conditions of each locality. In addition, the attention and creation of conditions in terms of facilities and training grounds for districts, towns and cities to promote and arouse the movement to develop more and more deeply among the people.

In 2024, the whole province will have over 477,300 people participating in regular sports training, reaching nearly 40% of the province's population. The number of sports households is 32,639/332,980 households, reaching 9.8%.

In addition to mass sports, high-performance sports continue to be maintained, increasingly maintained and achieved many high results. Each sports team of the province has known how to exploit its strengths to improve the quality of participating in domestic, regional and international competitions. As a result, in 2024, the province's high-performance sports team achieved   114 medals (34 gold medals, 33 silver medals, 47 bronze medals), broke 2 national youth records in athletics for men's shot put and discus throw, exceeding the target of 47 medals.   Along with the achievements, at international competitions in 2024, the Soc Trang province athlete delegation won 1 silver medal and 4 bronze medals at the Southeast Asian Judo Youth Championship and Championship in Indonesia; 1 bronze medal in the C4 men's 500m event at the 2024 Southeast Asian Canoeing Youth, U23 and Championship in Hai Phong city hosted by Vietnam.

Exciting and exciting ball dispute at Soc Trang Provincial Football Championship. Photo: THACH PICCH

Reporter: Can you inform us about the 10th Soc Trang Provincial Sports Congress, 2025 - 2026?

Comrade Lam Thanh Dung:   Implementing Plan No. 155/KH-UBND, dated September 27, 2024 of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province on organizing the 10th Soc Trang Provincial Sports Festival in 2025 - 2026, 11/11 units of districts, towns, cities and sectors (police, military, education and training) have deployed and developed documents related to the organization of sports festivals at the local level and units according to the above plan. Some units have organized model commune congresses and organized some pre-conference subjects according to the plan.

However, on March 11, 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Official Dispatch No. 974/BVHTTDL-TDTTVN on guidelines for organizing Sports Festivals at all levels in the new situation. Implementing the Ministry's direction in the above dispatch, on March 13, 2025, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Soc Trang issued Official Dispatch No. 522/SVHTTDL-QLTDTT on temporarily suspending the organization of the 10th Sports Festival at all levels of Soc Trang province in 2025 - 2026 .

According to Soc Trang newspaper

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/chao-mung-ngay-the-thao-viet-nam-27-3lan-toa-phong-trao-the-duc-the-thao-quan-chung-tinh-soc-trang-2025032615103216.htm