SEA Games Vietnam Held 12-23 May 2022, Competing 40 Sports

Illustration of SEA Games (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The SEA Games committee and the Vietnam Olympic Committee have confirmed that the 2021 SEA Games will be held on 12-23 May 2022 in Hanoi after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the biennial multi-event to be postponed from its original schedule, namely November 2021.

This assurance was obtained based on the results of the virtual meeting of the South East Asia Games Federation (SEAGF) with ASEAN member countries, Tuesday night.

"It has been officially decided that the XXXI SEA Games will be held May 12-23 by competing in 40 sports and 526 event numbers," said Secretary General of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Ferry J. Kono, as quoted by Antara, Thursday.

This edition of the SEA Games will not only be held in Hanoi, but also in surrounding cities and provinces. Organizers estimate that around 10,000 participants, consisting of athletes, officials, referees/jurors, and journalists will come to Vietnam.

The 31st SEA Games will feature 526 numbers from 40 sports.

The selection of sports and events was made after joint consultations between the organizing committee, the Vietnam Olympic Committee and the Vietnam national sports federation. In addition, the election was also based on the SEAGF Charter and Regulations.

Aquatics became the branch that competed in the most numbers, namely 48 numbers, followed by athletics with 47 numbers.

At the SEA Games this time, Xiangqi or Chinese Chess, will be competed for the first time.

With the certainty of holding the 2021 SEA Games, it means that there will be at least four multi-event events that Indonesia will participate in in 2022, namely the SEA Games (May), Islamic Solidarity Games (9-18 August), Asian Games (10-25 September), and Asian Youth Games. (20-28 December).

Previously, last July, SEAGF agreed to postpone the SEA Games which was originally scheduled to take place in November 2021 until next year.

The cancellation was taken due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam and the majority of countries in Southeast Asia at that time.