An 800-member delegation, including 560 athletes, is expected to represent Vietnam at the 26th Southeast Asian Games to be held in Indonesia on November 11-22.

They will compete for 545 medals in 43 out of a record 56 sports in Palembang and Jakarta, and are strong medal contenders in sports like martial arts, athletics, wrestling, and shooting.

The games will see the Vietnamese martial art vovinam become a medal event for the first time.

According to the national sports administration, Vietnam is likely to bag between 70 and 90 gold medals to finish in the top two at the SEA Games.

Vietnam has set its hopes on 14 martial arts events, such as karate, wushu, taekwondo and judo. It also hopes to compete strongly in chess, weightlifting and billiards&snooker.

The others teams to take part will be Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, and host nation Indonesia.

The Indonesian SEA Games Organising Committee is discussing measures to ease traffic congestion in the capital Jakarta./.