Dang Thi Thu Thao may not have a chance to defend her long jump title at the 30th SEA Games, as the event has been removed from the list of sports (Photo: baomoi.com) Hanoi (VNA) - The Philippines will not hold several keytrack-and-field events at the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2019, adecision that will likely affect Vietnam’s achievement level in the games asone of the leading athletics teams in the region.
At the previous SEA Games in Malaysia, Vietnam topped the athletics rankingwith 17 gold medals – a record for the biennial competition.
The organisers revealed a list of 41 events that did not include women’s longjump, high jump, heptathlon, the marathon, the 10,000m race or the men’s andwomen’s walk.
Vietnam are defending champions in women’s long jump and high jumpand silver medallists in the 10,000m and women’s walk. The marathon has been abasic event of every SEA Games as it has been held at the Olympics since thefirst edition in 1896.
The organisers added two events never before seen in the SEA Games – mixedrelay 4x100m and 4x400m.
According to Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Secretary of the VietnamAthletics Federation, the removal of these traditional events is unreasonable.
Vietnan and other countries will have a chance to submit their opinions on thelist before the final version is announced on February 28.
The 30th SEA Games will be held from November 30 to December 11 in thecities of Manila, Clark and Subic. It will be the biggest ever edition with arecord 56 sports.-VNA
VNA
