Vietnam will send more than 470 athletes to compete at the 29th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Malaysia in August.

Rimau, a Malaysian tiger, is the mascot of the 29th SEA Games which will feature nearly 500 athletes from Vietnam. 

The athletes will be supported by more than 200 coaches, experts and doctors together with thousands of supporters from Vietnam, said Tran Duc Phan, deputy head of the Vietnam Sport Administration.

At the coming games, Vietnamese competitors will take part in 32 out of 38 sports. They will meet about 6,000 athletes from 10 other countries in the region.

The send-off ceremony will be held on August 8 with the destination to be confirmed later.

The games, ASEAN’s most important sporting festival, will be held from August 19-30.

At the previous games in Singapore two years ago, Vietnam finished third with 73 gold medals, after Thailand with 95 golds and the hosts  with 84 golds.

VNA