SEA Games 33: An exciting final day in the swimming arena.

Today (December 15th) is the 6th official day of competition at the 33rd SEA Games, and also marks the end of the exciting swimming competitions.

Nguyen Thi Oanh (center) promises to have an explosive performance - Photo: NAM TRAN

Swimming is always one of the most exciting events at major sporting events, especially when Vietnam competes against the formidable Singaporean swimming team.

It's very difficult to dethrone Singapore in swimming, but if we only consider the men's events, Vietnam has been competing on equal footing with the "Lion City" swimming team for the past three SEA Games. At the 2023 SEA Games, the gold medal count in the men's swimming events was 7-8, with Singapore still having a slight advantage.

At the 2025 SEA Games, Vietnamese swimming will maintain its form and still win the maximum number of gold medals in its strong events, including the breaststroke group (led by Pham Thanh Bao), the medley group (led by Hung Nguyen and Quang Thuan), the long-distance freestyle group (led by Huy Hoang), and at least one men's relay event.

Unless there are any surprises today, the Vietnamese swimming team will still finish the SEA Games 33 with 7 gold medals, all belonging to male swimmers. The promising candidate to "close the book" on gold medals for Vietnam in the swimming arena is Nguyen Huy Hoang, as he competes in his specialty 400m freestyle event today.

With 7 gold medals, the Vietnamese swimming team is certain to maintain its second-place position in the region, only behind Singapore, which has reached continental-level status, and completely outperforming other regional swimming teams such as Thailand and the Philippines. This is also an achievement that Vietnam has maintained throughout the past six SEA Games, since the emergence of Anh Vien and the next generation of Huy Hoang and Hung Nguyen.

But this SEA Games still has a significant difference: the emergence of young swimmers. The SEA Games isn't just about gold medals; a host of young stars have shown remarkable progress in Thailand this year. The first star to mention is Nguyen Quang Thuan – often referred to by the media as "Anh Vien's younger brother," but he has shown he has the ability to break free from the enormous shadow of his legendary sister. Quang Thuan's victory over Hung Nguyen to win the gold medal in the 400m individual medley demonstrates this.

Tran Van Nguyen Quoc, Vo Thi My Tien, and Nguyen Thuy Hien are also young swimmers who have made strong progress at the 33rd SEA Games. Although they only finished in "silver" and "bronze" medals, they showed enough potential to become SEA Games champions in the future.

Today is the final day of swimming competitions at the 33rd SEA Games - Photo: NGUYEN KHOI

While swimming concludes, athletics will return with an exciting medal race after a relatively "quiet" day with the walking and marathon events. Today, athletics will feature many exciting events such as men's long jump, men's 3,000m steeplechase, men's 800m, women's 400m hurdles, women's 800m, women's 10,000m…

These are all events where Vietnamese athletes are fully capable of competing for gold medals, with leading stars such as Nguyen Thi Oanh, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Nguyen Trung Cuong, Nguyen Tien Trong, etc.

Up to this point in the SEA Games 33, the Vietnamese athletics team has been performing quite well, but has yet to create a truly explosive day of competition. And today promises to be the day athletics brings a shower of gold medals for Vietnamese sports.

Weightlifting and wushu are sports with many exciting finals scheduled for December 15th.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/sea-games-33-hap-dan-ngay-ha-man-duong-dua-xanh-20251215110033442.htm