Sendoff held for VN disabled athletes to ASEAN Para Games
VOV.VN - A sendoff ceremony was held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 20 for the Vietnamese sport delegation to the 11th ASEAN Para Games for the disabled, scheduled to take place in Indonesia from July 26 to August 7.
Vietnam will be sending a 153-member delegation to this year’s Games, comprising 120 athletes who will compete for medals across eight sports including athletics, swimming, powerlifting, table tennis, badminton, chess, judo, and archery.
Addressing the ceremony, Nguyen Hong Minh, vice head of the Vietnam Sports Administration under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, admitted that Vietnam will face difficulties in this year’s competition.
Most athletes have not competed at any international events for more than three years, except for some at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, said Minh, who is also head of the delegation.
At the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong also expressed hope that disabled athletes would try their utmost to bring glory to the homeland.
The 2022 ASEAN Para Games is a qualifier for athletes to win tickets to compete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. In addition, it is also a premise for athletes to prepare for Asian Para Games 4 which is scheduled to take place in Hangzhou in China in 2023.
Along with the nine sub-committees established by the ASEAN Para Sports Federation Board of Governors, the 11th ASEAN Para Games will set up an additional Technical Central Committee and Para Games Standing Committee in order to handle the logistics.
At the previous 2017 ASEAN Paralympic Games in Malaysia, Indonesia topped the rankings, followed by Malaysia and Thailand, with Vietnam ranked fourth.
