Vietnam proposes to postpone the 31st SEA Games

In an online meeting on the afternoon of June 9, the Vietnam Olympic Committee proposed to organize the 31st SEA Games in July 2022. Representatives of the Olympic Committees of the Southeast Asian countries have received the information and will report it to their governments. This issue also needs to be brought to the Standing Committee of the Southeast Asian Sports Federation, before making an official decision.

It is expected that, two weeks later, the parties will continue to meet to agree on the plan to organize the 31st SEA Games.

Covid-19 broke out again in Vietnam, with about 6,000 community infections since April 27. That fact, combined with the complicated development of the epidemic in many Southeast Asian countries, has affected athletes’ training, while commercial marketing campaigns are also difficult to achieve the desired results.

Ensuring medical care for about 20,000 athletes, coaches, officials, referees, and logistics staff of sports delegations, not to mention fans, is also a big challenge for the organizers of the 2021 SEA Games.

Media from some countries in the region have also informed about the possibility of postponing the 2011 SEA Games. “Vietnam wants to postpone the Games because the number of Covid-19 infections is increasing in this country, especially in the North, where the preparation of facilities and infrastructure for the SEA Games is stalled,” the newspaper said Sinar Harian quoted Mr. Mohamad Norza – President of the Malaysian Olympic Committee.

If the postponement is approved, this will be the first time since the SEA Games were born in 1959 that the Games do not take place in odd years. The 2023 SEA Games will take place in Cambodia in May.

The 31st SEA Games was originally scheduled to take place from November 21, 2021 to December 2, 2021 in 12 provinces and cities including Hanoi, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Ha Nam, Hai Duong, Hoa Binh, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, and Phu Tho. Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh and Quang Ninh. The congress consists of 40 subjects, most of which are Olympic subjects.

At the 30th SEA Games in the Philippines in 2019, Vietnam ranked second in the whole team with 98 gold medals, after the host Philippines. It was the first time that Vietnam was not the host but stood above Thailand on the medal table.

Nhat Tao