SEA Games 31's flag-raising ceremony takes place at Hanoi's My Dinh National Stadium on May 11. (Photo: VNA) More than 5,000 athletes including Olympic champions arevying for more than 500 gold medals in the event, in what should be packedarenas, the French news agency said.
The 11-nation Games include traditional Olympic sports suchas athletics, swimming and boxing, but also regional ones like sepak takraw, aneye-catching volleyball-style game where teams kick a rattan ball.
This 31st edition of the regional spectacular will be thefirst to feature xiangqi, also known as Chinese chess, which is wildly popularin the host country. Events retained from 2019 include e-sports, dancesport - acompetitive form of ballroom dancing - and the ancient Uzbek wrestling art ofkurash.
Organisers have though still added some local flavor as thisyear’s games will also see the return of Vietnamese martial art vovinam.
AFP quoted Games organising committee deputy head Tran Duc Phan as saying that "The hosts will have to fight as hard as other teams toearn golds against powerhouses, especially Thailand, Malaysia andIndonesia."
Thailand's taekwondo world number one Panipak Wongpattanakitand Philippine weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who both won gold at last year'sTokyo Olympics, are among the top athletes on display, the story said.
Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling, who won thecity-state's historic first Olympic gold in 2016, also hopes to regain hisscintillating past form, according to AFP./.
VNA
