VietNamNet Bridge - At the meeting of the Southeast Asia Sports Council held in Singapore on Monday, Singapore, the host country of the 28th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), announced 36 sports events with 402 sets of medals.

Of the 36 sports, 24 belong to the Olympic system and 34 belong to the 2014 Asian Games. They are as follows: water sports (swimming, diving, water polo), archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, billiards & snooker, bowling, canoeing, cycling, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, hockey, judo, handball, Pencak Silat, rugby, sailing, Sepak Takraw, shooting, softball, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, traditional boat race, triathlon, water skating and wushu, boxing, horse racing, floor ball, Petanque, rowing and volleyball.

Notably, the host country cut down the sets of medals for wushu from 23 to 20 and rejected the women’s Taolu category from the competition. Wushu is considered Vietnam’s gold mine and this will surely affect Vietnam’s goal at the 28th SEA Games.

The organizing committee also decided to reduce the number of medals and the number of athletes of many other sports, including rowing, shooting, athletics and swimming. Many competitions for women, such as football, Sepak Takraw, Pencak Silat, and futsal will not be held because the organizers said they are unable to organize these sports.

At the Games, Vietnam will lose a shot at a significant number of gold medals since the host country won’t be organizing many sports that are Vietnam’s strengths, such as chess, Vovinam, wrestling, karate and weightlifting. Therefore, Vietnam faces the risk of slipping out of the top three.

The 28th SEA Games is expected to be held in June 2015.

Nam Nguyen