VietNamNet Bridge – According to the newly-published schedule of the 27th Southeast Asia (SEA) Games, men's soccer will begin competition on December 1 while the opening ceremony of the games will open on December 11.

Men’s football games will take at the stadiums of Zayar Thiri and Thuwunna. The final game will be held in Theikdi Zayar stadium, located in the newly-built Myanmar National Sports Complex. This is the major stadium of the games, where will host the opening, closing ceremonies and athletics competitions.

All of the women's soccer games will be held at the Mandalay Stadium.

Two days after the start of the men's football, Chinlone - a new sport of SEA Games – will begin competition. A number of other subjects will start before the opening ceremony, including water ball (4/12), Wushu (5/12), women's soccer, boxing (6/12), basketball, wrestling (7/12), futsal, Pencak Silat (8/12), badminton, shooting, horse riding, canoeing, Sepaktakraw (9/12) and swimming, Petanque (10/12).

Some sports will end before the opening day and the athletes of these subjects may have to return home without attending the opening ceremony, such as water ball (ending on 9/12) and Wushu (on 10/12).

The chess competition will start on the opening day, 11/12 and it is also the only sport that will take place on the opening day.

At the 27th SEA Games, athletics will be still the sport with the highest number of medal sets – 46, including 42 sets for running and jumping, two for men’s and women’s marathon and two for men’s and women’s walking.

With 41 sets of medals, aquatic sport ranks second for the number of medals, including 32 sets for swimming, 8 to springboard and one for water ball.

Ranking third for the number of medals is Wushu (23 sets). Wrestling and Taekwondo rank fourth with 21 sets each. Other sports with many medals are Vovinam, Kempo, Judo, chess (18 sets for each sport), karate, traditional boat race (17), Canoeing (16), Pencak Silat (15), muay, boxing (14), cycling, sailing (13), shooting, Billiards & Snooker (12), Petanque, weightlifting (11), Sepaktakraw, archery (10) ...

Except for sailing and Sepaktakraw, most sports with high numbers of medals are the forte of Vietnam. However, the gold-mines of Vietnam sports are Wushu, Pencak Silat, shooting, Petanque, track-and-field, swimming, chess, muay, Vovinam, flags, Kempo, Karate, Taekwondo, weightlifting, and Billiards & Snooker.

The 27th SEA Games has 33 sports, with 460 sets of medals. The games will start competition from December 1 through 22. The last sport will be Sepaktakraw, which will complete by the closing day – December 22.

Nguyen Nam