Sixty Vietnamese athletes will compete in the Taekwondo Championships and the Junior Taekwondo Tournament of Southeast Asia scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City from June 5-8.

The tourneys are expected to draw the participation of close to 200 athletes from eight regional countries and are seen as warm-up events for the 25th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 25) in Laos later this year.

The Vietnamese athletes, who come from three teams, the national, young and HCM City , are hopeful of taking first places at both tournaments with a total of 14-17 gold medals.

At the International HCM City Judo Tournament on July 7-9, Vietnam will also send three teams to prepare the athletes for SEA Games 25. A number of regional and Asian countries will participate in the event.

Vietnam won one gold, three silver and 11 bronze medals in the last tourney with the only title secured by Le Minh Hoang in the men’s 55kg category.

Taekwondo and Judo are two of Vietnam ’s strong sports at regional games, which have contributed a remarkable number of medals to keep the nation’s high ranking./.