By the end of the penultimate day of competition, the Vietnamese sports delegation ranked 21st on the medal tally. The achievements of Vietnamese athletes were 3 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 19 bronze medals.
Vietnamese sports completed the target (2-5 gold medals) at the 19th ASIAD. However, the 21st place overall with only 27 medals of all kinds (less than 13 other delegations), including only 3 gold medals, is clearly not a high achievement.
Pham Quang Huy is the only athlete of the Vietnamese sports delegation to win an ASIAD gold medal in an Olympic event. (Photo: Bui Luong)
Not number 1 in Southeast Asia
The Vietnamese sports delegation topped the medal tally for two consecutive SEA Games, leaving its opponents far behind. However, that achievement was not enough to confirm its position as number 1 in Southeast Asia. When entering the ASIAD arena, Vietnamese sports lagged behind by a small margin compared to its regional peers.
By the end of the penultimate competition day (October 7), the Vietnamese delegation ranked behind Thailand (12 gold medals), Indonesia (7 gold medals), Malaysia (6 gold medals), the Philippines (4 gold medals) and Singapore (3 gold medals). Even if the karate team won the gold medal in the team kata event on the closing day, the Vietnamese delegation would at most surpass the Philippines and Singapore, still far behind Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of gold medals and total medals.
The Vietnamese delegation lost in terms of quantity and also in the quality of the medals. Of the 3 gold medals won by Vietnamese athletes, only shooting is an Olympic sport. The victory of shooter Pham Quang Huy was actually unexpected, because the Vietnamese team initially expected Trinh Thu Vinh and Ha Minh Thanh.
Indonesian athlete Rahmat Erwin Abdullah broke the world record and won the 19th ASIAD gold medal.
Vietnam ranked first in the SEA Games in athletics and swimming - a proud achievement because these are the two most important sports in the Olympic system. However, most of our SEA Games champions in these two sports have not been able to reach the continental level. At the 19th ASIAD, the Vietnamese delegation did not have any athletics medals, and in swimming, there was only a bronze medal from Nguyen Huy Hoang.
Sports in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia... have fewer SEA Games medals than Vietnam. However, among their strengths, they possess athletes of continental, even world class.
The characteristics of the number and distribution of medals at the SEA Games and ASIAD show that Vietnamese sports tend to be spread out but lack a "point", while other countries are more focused and focused. This is also one of the reasons why the Vietnamese delegation falls behind many Southeast Asian delegations when entering the ASIAD arena.
Why Vietnamese sports have not been successful at ASIAD
The Vietnamese sports delegation had some unfortunate failures, such as Nguyen Thi That, who had just won the Asian championship but was injured. Similarly, Nguyen Thi Tam had just recovered and when the draw was made, she immediately met her strongest opponent. In Chinese chess, Vietnamese players were still at a certain disadvantage compared to the representatives of the host country, China - the birthplace of this chess game.
However, the stories of some isolated cases are not the main reason why Vietnamese sports after many years are still just "rookies" at ASIAD, not to mention the Olympics. According to Director of the Department of Physical Training and Sports Dang Ha Viet - Head of the Vietnamese sports delegation at ASIAD 19, this issue is closely related to economic factors.
Vietnamese sports maintain a stable position at the SEA Games but are not yet able to reach the Asian level.
"ASIAD and the Olympics are the pinnacle of sports, large-scale events that require investment to achieve results. Sports achievements - for theorists - are economic competition. At ASIAD, the top 3 countries are China, Japan, and South Korea, which are also the 3 largest economies in Asia. The economy solves many issues related to investment, helping athletes achieve results," Director Dang Ha Viet analyzed.
Obviously, the SEA Games results do not reflect the true position of Vietnamese sports in the international arena. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are still the leading, more sustainable and strong sports nations.
In fact, Vietnamese sports are now only in the first stage of the transition to ASIAD and the Olympics after many years of implementing the "shortcut" strategy to reach the top 3 at the SEA Games. This transition is happening simultaneously, without a focus. Vietnamese sports do not have a strong sport at the Asian or world level. To have a few individuals, let alone create a system, requires a lot of time and the most important issue is investment.
"It takes a long time to train an athlete to achieve national level results, it takes 10 years, and from thousands of people, there is only one champion. In that process, the elimination is very large and also costs a lot of money.
There is also the issue of training science, the human resources are not only coaches but also personnel who solve problems of recovery, movement, nutrition, statistics. Up to now, we do not have enough. We are not capable of doing that. To achieve high results, we need to pay more attention to developing sports," Director Dang Ha Viet shared.
Xuan Phuong
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