SEA Games 26 was held in Palembang and Jakarta in Indonesia from November 11-21 with the participation of 11 nations in the Southeast Asia region. Vietnam’s sports delegation consisted of 868 cadres, experts, coaches and athletes. Of them 608 athletes from 43 selection teams competed in 36 official events and one performance event.
As expected, SEA Games 26 was a real competition among three powerful countries in the region, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Although many sporting events where Vietnam has strength were excluded in the competing programme of this SEA Games, the Vietnam’s sports delegation still set a target of capturing at least 75 gold medals and ranking 3rd.
 

After 11 days of competing, Indonesia ranked first with 182 gold medals, followed by Thailand with 109 gold medals and then Vietnam with 96 gold medals.
Vietnam not only surpassed their target, but some teams of the Vietnam’s sports delegation had excellent achievements. For example, the Vietnamese athletes in gymnastics affirmed their position in the region when they won 11 out of 14 gold medals. On November 15, Vietnam’s gymnastics team brought the country 9 gold medals.
 

In the diving event, Vietnamese athletes won 3 gold medals and broke three SEA Games records. In the swimming event, swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc won two gold medals and broke one SEA Games record. Track and field was also a gold mine of the Vietnam’s sports delegation at this SEA Games when athletes captured 9 gold medals and broke 4 national records. Vietnamese athletes also won 8 gold medals in wrestling, 7 gold medals in shooting and 6 gold medals in Pencak Silat.
Notably, Vovinam, a traditional martial art of Vietnam, was for the first time presented in the competing programme of SEA Games. The sport quickly drew much attention from the viewers thanks to the martial artists’ spectacular performances. Vietnam’s Vovinam team ranked first with 5 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 3 bonze medals.
 

Although reaching high achievements at SEA Games 26, Vietnam’s sports fans did not feel happy because once again the national men’s football team missed the chance to win a gold medal. The Vietnam national U23 football team was defeated by Myanmar with 4-1 score, failing to obtain the silver medal.
Evaluating the achievements of the Vietnamese sports delegation, Lam Quang Thanh, Head of the Vietnamese sports delegation at SEA Games 26, said: “In some sporting events, the Vietnamese athletes did not obtain the results as expected. However, in general, the Vietnamese sports delegation fulfilled its task with excellent results.”
 

These achievements are a foundation for the Vietnamese sports delegation to continue reaching for a higher target at SEA Games 27 to be held in Myanmar in 2013 and other larger sporting competitions, such as Asiad and the Olympics.