Swimming Vietnam aims to win 8 gold medals at SEA Games 32

Swimming Vietnam won 11 gold medals at the 31st SEA Games, all in the men's event and exceeded the initial target of three medals. "We continue to aim to win 8 to 10 gold medals at the 32nd SEA Games," General Secretary of the Aquatic Sports Association Dinh Viet Hung told MetaSports on April 4.

According to this expert, the competition in swimming at this year's Games is still taking place between the top three countries in the region, including Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

The 32nd SEA Games organizers abandoned the men's 800m content forte of Nguyen Huy Hoang, causing Vietnam to lose the opportunity to win a gold medal. But the Quang Binh fisherman is expected to defend his number one position in three other events, including 400m, 1500m freestyle and 200m butterfly. Tran Hung Nguyen also has three gold medal protection content including 200m, 400m medley and 200m backstroke. Meanwhile, Pham Thanh Bao protects 50 and 100m frogs. Besides, the team can dispute the gold medal in two freestyle 4x100m and 4x200m team events.

Before the men's team emerged at the Games last year, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien "carried" the gold medal for swimming in Vietnam. This Can Tho swimmer won three of the five gold medals for the Vietnamese swimming team at the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar. After that, she won 8 of 10, 8 of 10 and 6 of 10 gold medals in the next three periods before retiring from the team. Anh Vien is the only Vietnamese female swimmer to win a gold medal in swimming, and also the most successful Vietnamese athlete in the SEA Games with 25 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.

At the 31st SEA Games, Vietnamese women's swimmers had Vo Thi My Tien won the silver medal of 1500m freestyle and bronze medal of 400m freestyle, Le Thi My Thao won the silver medal of 200m butterfly. The two continue to be expected to win medals in the upcoming Cambodia, alongside juniors like Nguyen Thuy Hien and Le Quynh Nhu.

Quynh Nhu and Thuy Hien have been training in Hungary since mid-February with six main male swimmers including Huy Hoang, Hoang Quy Phuoc, Pham Thanh Bao, Tran Hung Nguyen, Nguyen Huu Kim Son and Nguyen Quang Thuan. This group will return home on April 24, before joining 12 other teammates to Cambodia to prepare to compete from May 6-11.

The Vietnamese swimming team initially made a list of 24 athletes, then cut 4 places when recalculating according to the chance to compete for medals. After the 32nd SEA Games, Vietnamese swimmers will continue to participate in the Southeast Asian and Asian 2023 age groups.