Dec 2018, the announcement of the Organizing Committee of the Host of SEA Games 30 – 2019 (The Philippines), the 30th session held in the Philippines set a record in the sport number of 56 with 63 branches and 523 events.
Bui Thi Thu Thao won a historic medal for Vietnamese athletics in ASIA 18
For athletics sport, there will be 41 events. However, some basic events of the Olympic competition which have been considered as advantages of Vietnam team, were removed, including: women long jump, women high jump, men/women 20km race walk, women 10,000m, heptathlon and women marathon. Especially, the women long jump, the event that Bui Thi Thu Thao, as the event champion with a gold medal won in ASIA 18. Recently, after proposals of the Vietnam team and others, the 2019 SEA Games host decided to add the women long jump event into athletics sport. This information was informed by Mr. Tran Manh Hung – Deputy Secretary General of Vietnam Athletics Federation: “After the most recent meeting, The Organizing committee of SEA Games 2019 announced that they will add the women long jump and women high jump events. However, the men & women 5000m, 10000m will be removed. For this reason, the Asia Athletic Federation sent an official notes to the Organizing Committee to consult the necessity in ”
The Asian Athletics Federation has just issued an official letter to the BTC recommending the need to fully fill the usual contents, otherwise the Asian Athletics Federation will not approve the athletics organization at SEA Games 30-2019″.
As recommended by the Asian Athletics Federation, it is likely that not only high jump and long jumps events, but also 5,000m, 10,000m, men’s and women’s race walking will be retained. At the 2017 SEA Games, athletics Vietnam for the first time in history won 17 gold medals and took the No. 1 position in Southeast Asia from Thailand. The addition of other content opportunities for Vietnam and the competition teams to add medals in athletics.
At the Standing Committee Meeting, Executive Committee of the Vietnam Olympic Committee in 2018 took place on January 21, 2019, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Sports and Exercise Tran Duc Phan also said: Up to this point, the chapter The competition of SEA Games 30-2019 was determined to include 56 subjects with 63 branches, 523 events, expected to draw more than 8,000 athletes from 11 countries and territories in the region. Through the review process, Vietnamese sports assessors have enough forces to attend 36/56 subjects, 42/63 subjects, and compete for 350/523 competitions. The major difficulty is that many Olympic subjects and ASIAD are cut down by key content of the SEA Games 30 Organizing Committee. In which, the athletics department, Vietnam lost 4 contents of the forte is running 5,000m, 10,000m, men and women race walking; shooting, Vietnam lost 4 strong contents; swimming, 800m swimming content which are dominated by Huy Hoang. Attending SEA Games 30-2019, it is expected that Vietnam team will consist of 500 members, striving to be on top.
The goal of the Vietnam Sport Team at the SEA Games 30-2019 is to win 65 gold medals or more, standing at the third place.
Ngoc Minh