VietNamNet Bridge - "2013 is the break-through year of Vietnam’s sports and the sport sector must have a drastic change to have the long-term preparation for the future," said Mr. Lam Quang Thanh, Deputy chief of the General Department of Physical Training and Sports.

S.A.O and S.A.Q are the highlights in the renovation plan of the Vietnamese sports. The sports sector has named the priority groups for investment. Group 1 is named S.A.O (SEA Games, Asian Games, Olympics) with 4 sports that are able to win medals at the SEA Games, the Asian Games and the Olympic Games, including shooting, weightlifting, taekwondo and gymnastics.

Group 2 – S.A.Q (short for Olympic qualifiers) with eight sports: athletics, swimming, wrestling, judo, boxing, rowing...

Group 3 – S.A – includes the sports that are able to win gold medals at the SEA Games and the Asian Games: karate, Takraw and wushu. This group also consists of some sports of the SEA Games 27 such as Muay, Kempo, Vovinam, pentanque, chess, billiard...

In addition, there is the potential group, with cycling, fencing, archery, yatch... and the group of sports of lagging behind like table tennis, volleyball, basketball and badminton.

Thanh added that each group would have a “leader” and the names of these leaders would be announced very soon.

In the latest interview, the Chief of the General Department of Physical Training and Sports – Mr. Vuong Bich Thang – emphasized that Vietnam’s sports would make a breakthrough in 2013.

Accordingly, for the first time, national sports teams will be applied with the eight groups of scientific solutions, including professional, management, medicine, biology, nutrition maintenance, recovery, educational psychology and information technology. This is the ministerial level project chaired by the Deputy Chief of the General Department of Physical Training and Sports, Mr. Lam Quang Thanh. Moreover, the general department will carry out three preferential policies for athletes.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has decided to spend nearly VND600 billion (around $30 million) in developing sports in 2013, including over VND146 billion to prepare for the 27th SEA Games this year.

For the sustainable and long-term development, the sports sector will have to mobilize a lot of resources from local businesses and especially from the dynamics of the sports associations. For the sports that are rated as lagging behind such as soccer, table tennis, volleyball, etc., the investment will come from associations, not from the general department of sports and physical training, Thanh said.

According to Thanh, as Myanmar eliminates many sports that are the forte of Vietnam from the SEA Games 27, Vietnam may lose about 22 gold medals of gymnastics and medals of some other sports like shooting, swimming, taekwondo, karate, judo, Pencak Silat, vovinam and Kempo. However, Vietnam will strive to ensure its positioning the top three countries.

S. Tung