Highlights of the historic SEA Games of the Vietnamese sports delegation

The most successful congress in history when the Vietnamese sports delegation competed abroad.

Tonight, May 17, the closing ceremony of the 32nd SEA Games will take place. The Vietnamese sports delegation has ended the congress with more success than expected.

The Vietnamese sports delegation officially won the overall championship at the 32nd SEA Games. On the overall rankings, we lead with 136 Gold Medals, 105 Silver Medals and 114 Bronze Medals.

Following is the Thai sports delegation with 108 Gold Medals, 95 Silver Medals, 108 Bronze Medals; third is the Indonesian sports delegation with 85 Gold Medals, 81 Silver Medals, 109 Bronze Medals. The host country Cambodia ranked fourth with 81 Gold Medals, 74 Silver Medals, 106 Bronze Medals.

The most successful congress in history when Vietnamese sports competed abroad.

Thus, the Vietnamese sports delegation made history when it won the SEA Games for the first time even though it was not the host country. Previously, we had won the overall first place twice in 2003 and 2022 when hosting the event. That shows that Vietnam has truly risen to the number one position in regional sports.

At the 32nd SEA Games, the Vietnamese sports delegation had the participation of more than 700 athletes. We set a target of winning 80-120 Gold Medals and being in the Top 3 leading delegations. After the last day of competition (May 16), Vietnam exceeded the target in both the number of medals and position on the overall ranking.

Many athletes overcome difficulties to win Gold Medals

Coming to this SEA Games, Vietnamese sports faced a lot of pressure, the biggest of which was the excellent performance with the leading position of the whole delegation at the 31st SEA Games. Another pressure came from the fact that we had to play away while the host country and the sports powerhouses in the region such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia were also ambitious and had good preparations for the Games, and then the trend of naturalizing athletes. However, with careful preparation, extraordinary efforts and will, the athletes and coaches helped Vietnamese sports write a proud mark at this SEA Games.

Vietnamese athletes have tried their best to bring glory to the Fatherland.

Notably, track and field athlete Nguyen Thi Oanh created a historic feat with 4 Gold Medals at the 32nd SEA Games. Nguyen Thi Oanh is the first athlete in the history of Vietnamese track and field to win 4 individual Gold Medals in one SEA Games.

The medals at this SEA Games have shown that we have a relatively strong and comprehensive force in the Olympic, Asian Games and SEA Games groups. Therefore, the number of Gold Medals is evenly distributed in the sports we participate in.

Athlete Nguyen Thi Oanh created a miracle at SEA Games 32.

On the basketball court, the vibrant atmosphere and enthusiastic cheers from home fans and many overseas Vietnamese living and working in Cambodia helped the Vietnamese girls compete impressively, winning the first Gold Medal for Vietnamese basketball at the SEA Games. In another playground, for the first time, Vietnam Golf not only participated in the role of "finishing the competition and going home" but also excellently won the Gold Medal. It is worth mentioning that the person who brought home this more precious than gold medal for Vietnam Golf was the 15-year-old "prodigy" Le Khanh Hung. That also shows that Hung will have a long and bright future ahead with Vietnam Golf.

Vietnam Table Tennis Wins Gold Medal After 24 Years of Waiting

Pair Dinh Anh Hoang and Tran Mai Ngoc won the Gold Medal after 24 years of waiting. In the mixed doubles final, players Tran Mai Ngoc and Dinh Anh Hoang excellently defeated the pair Zhe Yu Chew - Jian Zeng (Singapore) with a score of 3-1, thereby winning the first gold medal of table tennis at the 32nd SEA Games. This is also the first time in 24 years that Vietnamese table tennis has won a gold medal in the mixed doubles event at a SEA Games.

Couple Mai Ngoc and Anh Hoang brought home the SEA Games gold medal after 24 years of waiting.

Impressive wins in many Olympic sports

Among the Olympic sports, Judo also made an unforgettable mark at this Games by winning 8 Gold Medals, doubling the target. Among them were impressive victories such as Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy convincingly defeating the naturalized Cambodian athlete from Japan - the national martial artist of this sport in the final match to step up to the highest position, women's under 52kg category.

In the men's under-90kg category, Le Anh Tai defeated an athlete of Thai nationality but born and raised in Japan. Although Tai had negative points deducted from his score, he used his hand to score a perfect ippon score, winning convincingly against his opponent.

Tran Minh Tri successfully conquered the weight of 176kg in the final clean and jerk and broke the SEA Games record. The Vietnamese weightlifter won the gold medal with a total lift of 306kg, exactly 1kg more than his Thai opponent.

In addition to the impressive victories above, in the Olympic group, the weightlifting team also exceeded its target. Although it had to allocate its forces to 2 tournaments: the SEA Games and the Asian Championship, which is considered the Olympic qualifying round. However, the Vietnamese weightlifting team won 3 gold medals.

The breakthrough Gold Medal belonged to weightlifter Tran Minh Tri, men's 67kg category. This athlete born in 2004 not only won the Gold Medal but also broke the SEA Games record in the clean and jerk event. In particular, on yesterday's competition day, weightlifter Nguyen Quoc Toan consecutively broke 3 SEA Games records (snatch, clean and jerk and total weight) in the under 89kg category to win the Gold Medal.

Vietnam swimming team won 7 gold medals at SEA Games 32.

For swimming, the main arena is determined to be the Asian Games, held in September in China. Therefore, Nguyen Huy Hoang's drop point has been adjusted to September. At this SEA Games, Hoang will face difficulties when both of his strengths requiring speed and endurance, the 200m butterfly and the 400m freestyle, are scheduled to compete back to back.

As soon as Hoang won the Gold Medal in the 400m freestyle, he only had time to climb into the pool and then hurriedly got on the starting block in the 200m butterfly, which is why he only finished in 4th place. Therefore, at the 32nd SEA Games, Vietnamese swimming only won 7 Gold Medals thanks to Tran Hung Nguyen, Nguyen Huy Hoang, Pham Thanh Bao (each with 2 individual Gold Medals), and 1 Gold Medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay (Hung Nguyen, Kim Son, Huy Hoang, Quy Phuoc).

Wrestling also had a successful congress, when Vietnamese wrestlers demonstrated their superiority with Nguyen Van Cong (57kg men), Can Tat Du (70kg men), and Nguyen Thi My Hanh (62kg women) winning the championship in their respective weight categories.

Athlete Nguyen Xuan Dinh won the Gold Medal in wrestling, 65kg weight class.

Along with that, athletes Kieu Thi Ly (55kg female), Nguyen Huu Dinh (61kg male), Nguyen Xuan Dinh (65kg male), Ha Van Hieu (125kg) brought home more precious Gold Medals for the Vietnamese wrestling team.

In the end, at the 32nd SEA Games, the Vietnamese wrestling team won 13 Gold Medals, ranking first overall. The team's target before participating in the 32nd SEA Games was to win from 9 to 12 Gold Medals.

In terms of the overall achievements of the Vietnamese martial arts teams at the 32nd SEA Games, the wrestling team has the best achievements. Following the wrestling team is the Vietnamese judo team (8 Gold Medals).

Spread and inspire national pride

At this congress, the Vietnamese Sports delegation also spread and inspired national pride, determination, and never giving up in the face of difficulties. In particular, the female athletes promoted the tradition of the descendants of Trung Sisters and Trieu Thi Trinh, training diligently, overcoming difficulties, and competing tenaciously to shine and bring glory to the country.

The Vietnam women's football team created a miracle in the history of women's football.

That is the image of the girls of women's football who successfully defended the championship for the 8th time. The victory over the Myanmar women's team helped the Vietnamese women's football team write a miracle in the history of women's football at the SEA Games. This was the 8th time Vietnam won the championship, and at the same time set a record as the first team to win the Gold Medal in 4 consecutive SEA Games.

The image of the big flag flying over Olympia stadium, closing a successful congress of the Vietnamese sports delegation.

This is also the SEA Games in which the host country has left many impressions of the beautiful, enthusiastic and hospitable country of Cambodia. They have tried their best to make the Games more successful than expected and Vietnamese sports have also left their mark of a brilliantly successful Games on the away field./.