HA NOI — Viet Nam's 176-member contingent leaves for Jakarta today to compete at the 26th Southeast Asian Games which will begin tomorrow.
Vietnamese flag was hoisted yesterday in the flag-raising ceremony at the City Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia.Another flag hoisting ceremony will be held in Palembang, the major sport venue of the 26th SEA Games, today.
The remaining 720 athletes and coaches will fly to Indonesia tomorrow and Friday. In total, 42 Vietnamese teams will take part in the Games, of which athletics sends the most, 55 members, with the aim of earning seven to nine gold medals.
Vfresh milk donated VND100 million (US$4,760) in cash to the team at the send-off at the National Sports Centre in Ha Noi on Tuesday.
The Games, to run until November 22, will be hosted by Palembang (the capital of South Sumatra) and Jakarta. Palembang will feature 296 events while Jakarta will provide venues for 266. The track and field competition is scheduled from Saturday till Wednesday in Palembang.
"The Viet Nam team has trained hard and is fully fit," said head of the Viet Nam delegation Lam Quang Thanh.
It's the nation's largest group ever to go to the Games, with a target of at least 70 gold medals to rank in the top three.
It is predicted the first gold medal for Viet Nam will come tomorrow in the canoeing event with Tran Quang Long a top contender, Thanh said.
"On Saturday, Vietnamese athletes will continue to take part in other events such as taekwondo, karatedo, swimming, track and field and shooting. They will take more golds on that day," Thanh said.
Viet Nam also hopes to secure golds in wushu, judo, chess, weightlifting, shooting, billiards and snooker. One of its toughest tasks belongs to the men's under-23 football team.
Accommodation and transport in Indonesia has been taken care of, Thanh said.
"The Games organising board and Indonesian airlines Garuda have pledged to create favourable conditions for Viet Nam to move from Jakarta to Palembang and housing problems have been solved," he said.
At the 25th SEA Games held in Laos two years ago, Viet Nam won 83 gold, 75 silver and 57 bronze medals to rank second on the medal tally, close behind Thailand. — VNS
vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn
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