SEA Games 31: Vietnamese finswimmers eye 6-8 gold medals

Vietnamese finswimmers eye 6-8 gold medals at SEA Games 31 (Photo: https://seagames2021.com/)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s finswimming team is striving for 6-8 gold medals out of the 13 sets of medals in the discipline at the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31), topping the rank in this sport.

Finswimming was included in SEA Games 22 in Vietnam for the first time. At this event, Vietnamese athletes won 13 gold medals out of the 16 sets of medals.

At SEA Games 25 in 2009 in Laos, and SEA Games 26 in 2011 in Indonesia, Vietnam brought home four and six gold medals, respectively, breaking many Southeast Asian records.

Besides Thailand and the Philippines, Indonesia is growing stronger in the sport with many talented athletes, whose stats are on par with Vietnamese top finswimmers in some categories.

According to coach of the Vietnamese finswimming team Hoang Quoc Binh, Vietnam ranks first in the sport in not only Southeast Asia but also Asia.

Binh said that Vietnam has prolific and talented finswimmers who have gained great achievements in the regional and global arenas.

Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will be Vietnam's main opponents in the sport at SEA Games 31, he said, expressing his belief that Vietnamese finswimmers can completely defeat these opponents.

The Vietnamese finswimming team have been training in the My Dinh National Stadium since early May.

SEA Games 31, themed “For a Stronger South East Asia”, will be held in the capital city of Hanoi and 11 neighbouring provinces and cities from May 12 to 23.

Featuring 40 sports with 526 events, it is expected to attract around 10,000 participants. The biennial event was initially slated for late 2021 but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact./.