Vietnam will send a young but strong team of athletes to compete at the World Pencak Silat Championship 2022 in Melaka, Malaysia.

They will join with 80 other delegations at the 19th edition of the tournament from July 26-31.

Vietnamese athletes will compete in all 18 categories of tanding (combat) among 22 on offer for both men and women along with four pools of seni (performance). They are aiming for four to five gold medals.

It will be the third international event of Vietnam’s pencak silat team. They finished on top of the Southeast Asian Championship in Singapore in February with nine golds. In May, the team dominated the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, winning six titles.

The World Silat Championships was supposed to be held in 2020 with Sarawak as the venue, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the latest world event in Singapore in 2018, Vietnam secured six golds and finished second out of 60 teams. Singapore topped the medal tally with seven golds./.