Vietnam's athletics lacks many stars at the 32nd SEA Games
Unnamed stars are Nguyen Van Lai - 5,000m and 10,000m SEA Games gold medals, Quach Thi Lan - women's 400m hurdles and women's 4x400m gold medal, Khuat Phuong Anh - women's 800m gold medal and Lo Thi Hoang - gold medal javelin thrower and holds the SEA Games record. In addition, Tran Van Dang - an athlete who has the opportunity to compete for medals in the 800m and 1,500m distances - is also absent.
Of the names mentioned above, "old general" Van Lai retired from international competition. Answering MetaSports at the end of May 2022, the runner born in 1986 revealed that he intends to switch to marathon competition (42.195km) - the distance he wants to play to discover his limits. Lo Thi Hoang has not yet recovered after breaking her knee ligament at the National Sports Festival in September 2022.
However, Vietnamese athletics also salutes the damage of two other stars after the injury, the "Queen of sprint" Le Tu Chinh and middle distance athlete Nguyen Trung Cuong. Tu Chinh will compete for medals in all 3 women's events (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay), while Trung Cuong will compete in the men's 3,000m obstacle course.
At the women's 800m distance, the coaching staff believes that Bui Thi Ngan and Nguyen Thi Thu Ha can replace Khuat Phuong Anh in charge of the medal competition. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Huyen is still a good runner in the women's 400m hurdles instead of Quach Thi Lan.
At the 31st SEA Games, Vietnamese athletics set a target of 15-17 gold medals, but won up to 22 to take first place in the whole team. This achievement was achieved thanks to unexpected gold medals from Thai ethnic girl Lo Thi Hoang (javel throw), Hoang Nguyen Thanh (marathon), Muong girl Nguyen Linh Na (7 pentathlons) or Bui Thi Nguyen (100m) fence).
According to a member of the team's coaching staff, after considering all of the above factors, it is likely that Vietnamese athletics will still be assigned the gold medal target of the 32nd SEA Games as in the previous period. Middle-distance runner Nguyen Thi Oanh will be the team's number one hope when defending three gold medals of 1,500m, 5,000m and 3,000m over obstacles.
On February 15, the General Department of Physical Education and Sports announced 599 coaches and athletes on the key list, focusing on the 32nd SEA Games. All are entitled to a diet of 480,000 VND/person/day. The track and field team has the largest number of members with 79 members, followed by the swimming team with 30 people.
Teams often have pre-SEA Games prizes to select key athletes from previous periods. This time, the teams used the National Sports Festival in September 2022 for selection. The Vietnamese track and field team also had an important rehearsal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan in February. Here, Nguyen Thi Oanh won the 1,500m gold medal, while Nguyen Thi Huyen won the silver medal. Women's 400m.
The 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia will take place from May 5 to 17 with 36 subjects and a record number of content 583. On March 5, the Heads of Delegation's Conference will meet to discuss the final final conclusion on the number of subjects and contents. and competition rules.
The Vietnamese sports delegation is expected to compete in 30 subjects with 444 contents. This congress does not feature Vietnam's strong sports such as shooting, rowing and canoeing, chess, kuash or wushu.
