"Celebrating the extraordinary"

(Baonghean) - The 28th SEA Games have officially opened in Singapore. This is the biggest sporting event for Southeast Asian nations.

Performance during the opening ceremony of the 28th SEA Games. Photo: Internet

1.The 28th SEA Games have officially opened in Singapore. This is the largest sporting event for Southeast Asian nations. The slogan for the 2015 SEA Games is "Celebrating the Extraordinary"—to praise the strength, resilience, and endurance of the participating athletes. Besides honoring the athletes, the host country has also strived to organize a truly impressive SEA Games. For the first time, the opening ceremony featured a spectacular laser light show. With 160 HD projectors, the laser system used at the 28th SEA Games opening ceremony even surpassed the power of the laser light system at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (146 HD projectors), creating a feast of color and light. In addition, the host country spent $111 million on logistics and television broadcasting, $40 million on security and insurance, and $26 million on organizing the opening and closing ceremonies... This can also be seen as an extraordinary effort and a show of respect for the sports delegations by the host country of the 28th SEA Games, because many countries withdrew when it was their turn to host this event due to economic constraints and also because of the perception that the SEA Games are just a "village festival".

2.For Vietnamese sports, since returning to the SEA Games in 1995 in Thailand, over the course of 26 years and 14 editions, we have made remarkable progress. From having only a few strong disciplines like shooting and martial arts, winning no more than 10 gold medals each time, to consistently ranking in the top 3 overall in recent SEA Games, with the number of gold medals sometimes reaching nearly 200! This can be considered an extraordinary effort by Vietnamese sports at the SEA Games. But even with over 100 gold medals collected at each SEA Games, ranking first or second, Vietnamese sports still cannot truly dominate the SEA Games because we haven't won... gold in men's football. Therefore, at this SEA Games, besides checking how many gold medals our team has in other sports on the overall medal table, most spectators are still focusing their attention on the progress of the Vietnamese U23 team. In the group stage, our team achieved something extraordinary by winning convincingly 5-1 against Malaysia, a direct competitor for a place in the next round, for the first time. But that's not enough; fans want Coach Miura's team to achieve another extraordinary feat: reaching the final and stepping onto the podium to set a new record for Vietnamese football – winning a gold medal at the SEA Games. Because in previous SEA Games, Vietnamese sports have achieved many extraordinary things, except for men's football!

Duc Dung