Late yesterday evening, April 3, the General Department of Sports and Physical Training held an important meeting to review the composition of the Vietnamese sports delegation attending the 32nd SEA Games (Cambodia). It is known that the previous tentative list included 1,018 people, including 744 athletes, 18 coaches and 25 experts. The delegation includes 4 deputy delegations, the head of the delegation is Deputy Director General of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Tran Duc Phan.
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Vietnamese sports are expected to face many challenges at SEA Games 32. Photo: Nhu Y |
However, due to financial difficulties and some arising professional issues, the General Department of Sports and Physical Training had to review its force to ensure that the 32nd SEA Games would bring the most "elite" faces of each sport.
At the 31st SEA Games at home, the Vietnamese delegation exploded with 205 gold medals, surpassing the rest. This result made the sports industry set a very high goal when entering the preparation phase for the 32nd SEA Games. There were opinions that Vietnam needed to maintain the No. 1 position at the congress taking place in Cambodia. However, speaking with Tien Phong, Deputy Director General Tran Duc Phan said that this was an extremely difficult task.
“We believe that the appropriate goal for Vietnam at the 32nd SEA Games is to be in the top 3. In the upcoming Games, the host country will cut many of Vietnam’s strong events, which will greatly affect the number of gold medals we can win. In addition, regional rivals such as Thailand, Indonesia or host Cambodia are all very well prepared, creating a significant challenge,” said Mr. Tran Duc Phan.
At the 31st SEA Games, athletics, martial arts and swimming were the “gold mines” of the Vietnamese sports delegation. Among them, the athletics team broke through with 22 gold medals, dominating the region for the second consecutive time. However, at the 32nd SEA Games, athletics was missing many gold medal hopefuls such as Quach Thi Lan, Khuat Phuong Anh or Nguyen Van Lai (expected to switch to marathon competition)... The Vietnamese athletics team faces a huge challenge in defending its No. 1 position.
Archery, shooting, rowing and some martial arts were also eliminated from the competition. The most regrettable case is shooting, which is an Olympic sport but is not included in the competition program. At the 31st SEA Games, shooting brought 7 gold medals to the Vietnamese sports delegation. If women's football still maintains its good strength, the men's football team, the U22 Vietnam team of coach Philippe Troussier, is expected to face great pressure. U22 Vietnam no longer has the advantage of using over-age players, the young team has not accumulated enough international experience and also lacks truly outstanding faces like the seniors. According to calculations, the elimination of the above sports could cause Vietnam to lose about 50-60 gold medals. The number of gold medals that the Vietnamese delegation is aiming for is only about 100 gold medals.
Former Director of the Department of High Performance Sports (General Department of Sports and Physical Training), expert Nguyen Hong Minh also said that in the above context, the target of top 3 is suitable for the strength of the Vietnamese sports delegation. According to expert Nguyen Hong Minh, host countries often take advantage of their strengths to bring their strong sports to the SEA Games. However, with the orientation of focusing on Asian Games and Olympic sports, Vietnam needs to firmly maintain this development direction and invest consistently.
The ceremony to send off the Vietnamese sports delegation is scheduled to take place on April 19 at the National Sports Training Center in Hanoi (Nhon). Currently, the teams gathered here are in the final stage, gradually releasing their numbers to perfect their techniques and tactics.
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