The 10th ASEAN Para Games is scheduled to be held in January 2020, after the 30th SEA Games, but due to funding issues, the host Philippines moved the Para Games from January to March with a schedule from 20 to 26.3. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, once again the host country of the Philippines continued to postpone until May or June 2020.
The cancellation of the ASEAN Para Games 2020 is a huge disadvantage for Vietnamese athletes with disabilities.
After two times of postponement, the host of the Philippines has officially announced the cancellation of the 10th ASEAN Para Games after the Philippine Sports Commission stopped providing financial support. On April 29, the Philippine Sports Commission announced that they withdrew financial assistance for the 10th ASEAN Para Games as part of the post-pandemic “contractionary policy”.
Chairman of Philippine Sports Commission, Mr. William Ramirez announced this following an online conference, as part of savings measures from the sports sponsorship agency. Mr. Ramirez also said that the money to hold ASEAN Para Games will be used to support athletes in difficulty due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘If we don’t have a vaccine, we can’t host any competition. All events of the Philippine Sports Commission are canceled until December unless a vaccine against the coronavirus is found. We continue to study the forecasts and are ready to take the necessary actions’’ said Mr. Ramirez.
The cancellation of the ASEAN Para Games 2020 is a huge disadvantage for Vietnamese athletes with disabilities. Officially concentrating again after the Lunar New Year at 2 national sports training centers of Da Nang City and Ho Chi Minh City, members of 3 sports teams with disabilities of swimming, athletics and weightlifting were “confined to barracks” for several months. Recently, when the quarantine directive was lifted, the Vietnamese athletes with disabilities suffered from unhappy news when ASEAN Para Games 2020 was canceled.
With no ASEAN Para Games 2020 goal left, Vietnamese athletes with disabilities will have to return to their localities to continue struggling and living. Along with that, they must continue to practice to maintain their performance, ready to wait for the selected tournaments to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympic Summer 2021.
N.Khoa