Hanoi (VNA) 💧– Vietnam for the first time secured the top place at a Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) held outside its territory after topping the medal tally at SEA Games 32 in Cambodia.

The Vietnamese sports delegation successfully wrapped up the 32nd SEA Games with 136 gold medals, 105 silver medals and 114 bronze medals, ranking first in the medal tally. Vietnam had 28 more gold medals than Thailand, the second in the medal tally. This result helped Vietnam top the SEA Games medal tally for the third time in history, after the Games in 2003 and 2022.  Throughout their 11-day journey at the largest regional sporting event, the Vietnamese athletes gave fans a full gamut of emotions, from the burst of joy over the historic gold medal in the women’s basketball, to admiration, even from rivals, for runner Nguyen Thi Oanh who brought home four golds. Many other historic achievements were recorded by the Vietnamese athletes at the Games. Besides Oanh, head coach Mai Duc Chung and the women’s football team won the fourth consecutive SEA Games gold after sailing through a host of challenges. The sports that brought the highest number of gold medals for Vietnam were diving (14 gold medals), wrestling (13), athletics (12), vovinam (7), wushu (6), gymnastics (4), taekwondo (4), and fencing (4). Runner Nguyen Thi Oanh is the first athlete to win four gold medals in a single SEA Games. She is also the one who won the most gold medals for Vietnam, coming first in four individual women’s running events:  1,500m, 3,000m hurdles, 5,000m and 10,000m. The youngest athlete of the Vietnamese team who won a gold medal was golfer Le Khanh Hung, 15. This was the first time that Vietnam golf had won a gold medal. The women’s basket ball team also brought home the first ever SEA Games gold medal, ending the domination of the Philippines and Thailand in the sport. Vietnamese athletes broke 16 SEA Games records, comprising two in swimming by Pham Thanh Bao, four in weightlifting by Nguyen Quoc Toan in the 89kg category and Tran Minh Tri in the 67kg category, and ten in scuba diving. As many as 69 of the 136 gold medals of Vietnam are in Olympic categories, accounting for 45%, including swimming (7), athletics (12), 3x3 basketball (1), boxing (2), bicycle (1), fencing (4), football (1), golf (1), gymnastics (4), judo (8), karate (6), table tennis (1), taekwondo (4), weightlifting (4), and wrestling (13). Regrettable failures were also seen in athletics, swimming, tennis, fencing and even the men's U22 football team. Vietnam sent a 1,003-strong sports delegation to the SEA Games 32, about 700 of them athletes, who competed in 31 sports events. The Games took place in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, and Kep and officially wrapped up on May 17. With impressive achievements at the 32nd SEA Games, Vietnam is expected to reap more successes at the 19th Asian Games (ASIAD 19) which is slated for Hangzhou (China) in September 2023./.