Vietnam Table Tennis: Actively preparing for SEA Games 33

Tennis player Nguyen Anh Tu competes at the 2025 Nhan Dan Newspaper National Table Tennis Championship.

Thorough professional preparation

In the last 4 consecutive SEA Games (29, 30, 31, 32), the Vietnamese table tennis team has contributed 1 gold medal to the achievements of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation. Therefore, in the 33rd SEA Games, the Vietnam Sports Department (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) set a target for Vietnamese table tennis to strive to win 1-2 gold medals.

According to Phan Anh Tuan, Head of the Table Tennis Department (Vietnam Sports Administration), the Vietnamese table tennis team has not yet gathered. Nearly 200 strong players from 21 provincial and municipal units are participating in the National Table Tennis Championship - Nhan Dan Newspaper 2025 taking place in Da Nang . The tournament results are the basis for the team's coaching board to select players for the Vietnamese table tennis team, aiming for international tournaments, especially the 33rd SEA Games at the end of the year.

Through the achievements of the teams after the first days of competition, national players such as Nguyen Anh Tu ( Hanoi 1), Dinh Anh Hoang, Le Dinh Duc, Tran Mai Ngoc (T&T 1 People's Police), Mai Hoang My Trang, Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh (Ho Chi Minh City)... still maintained their form and helped their home units achieve the expected rankings. In which, T&T 1 People's Police won the men's team championship while Ho Chi Minh City successfully defended the women's team championship.

Through the above results, we can clearly see the effectiveness of the overseas training trips of the units. Specifically, the training trip in China before this tournament for 1 month by the T&T People's Police. This helped the T&T People's Police team emerge as the brightest candidate for the overall championship at the national tournament.

Sports expert Nguyen Hong Minh commented that the goal of winning at least 1 gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games is within the reach of the Vietnamese table tennis team. However, it is not easy to achieve this goal, especially in recent times, when Vietnamese table tennis players have had few opportunities to train and compete internationally. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, athletes from Thailand, Singapore, etc. often train and compete abroad.

Efforts to achieve goals

In just over 6 months, the 33rd SEA Games will take place in Thailand. The national table tennis team will gather from June 2025 to prepare for upcoming international tournaments.

Phan Anh Tuan, Head of the Table Tennis Department (Vietnam Sports Administration), admitted that for a long time, the international competition funding for the sport has not been enough to meet the needs of improving the level of key top players. The annual international competition funding for the sport is only enough for the team of about 10 athletes to train and compete abroad for 1-2 months. That is not enough to raise the level of the team. Therefore, to solve the problem of international competition funding for athletes, there must be cooperation from many sides: the governing body, businesses, and athletes' families.

Currently, there are a number of businesses that have invested in leading Vietnamese table tennis players. For example, the case of female tennis player Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh. After winning the gold medal in women's singles at the 2024 Southeast Asian Table Tennis Championship, Dieu Khanh was sponsored by Smart Education Technology Joint Stock Company (VietED) to compete in the Table Tennis Tournament of the World Professional Table Tennis Tournament (WTT) in Kazakhstan in September 2025, with an estimated total cost of nearly 100 million VND. In addition, VietED Company also plans to sponsor tennis player Nguyen Anh Tu to participate in this tournament so that both Anh Tu and Dieu Khanh can participate in both singles and mixed doubles. This will also benefit the national team in their preparation for the 33rd SEA Games. However, there are still too few businesses that dare to generously accompany Vietnamese table tennis players.

According to many experts, in order to have businesses accompanying key athletes, the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation needs to promote a stronger bridging role. Head of the High Performance Sports Department (Vietnam Sports Administration) Hoang Quoc Vinh said that after the 2025 National Table Tennis Championship, the national table tennis team will be established. The team will include 3 coaches and 10 athletes (5 men, 5 women) who will train in China for 1-2 months to have comprehensive preparation for the Southeast Asian Games. The Department will create all conditions in terms of equipment and nutrition for the Vietnamese table tennis team's athletes to practice and compete. The Department will coordinate with the Table Tennis Federation to have practical solutions, including finding funding sources for athletes to train and compete more internationally in the coming time.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/bong-ban-viet-nam-tich-cuc-chuan-bi-cho-sea-games-33-703408.html