Vietnam will send a 13-member swimming team, including eight athletes, to the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, to be held in Singapore next month, targeting to win at least ten gold medals. 



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The brightest star of Vietnamese swimming at the moment is 19-year-old Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, who is currently taking a training course in the United States. Over the past time, Anh Vien has recorded superior results against her opponents in the women’s 200m and 400m medley, 400m and 800m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m backstroke events.

Vien settled for bronze in the 400m medley at the recent 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series in the US, recording a time of 4:42.60. She also competed in numerous other events including the 800m freestyle (finishing fifth, 8:52.74), 200m medley (seventh, 2:19.85) and 200m freestyle (eighth, 2:01.08). According to experts, the golden girl of Vietnamese sport has a very high chance of swimming away with six gold medals at the 28th SEA Games.

Alongside Anh Vien, Vietnamese swimming is also anticipating outstanding performances from female athletes including Hoang Quy Phuoc, Lam Quang Nhat and Tran Duy Khoi. Quy Phuoc has been sent to Japan for long-term training with an aim to achieve high results at the 28th SEA Games and in preparation for the 2015 World Championship and 2016 Olympics qualifiers. Japan is highly regarded for its great swimming tradition in the men’s categories and is considered an appropriate environment for Phuoc to develop his skills in the favoured 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly events.

Hopes are also pinned on Lam Quang Nhat, who surprised everyone by winning the men’s 1,500m freestyle gold medal at the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar two years ago. Nhat improved six seconds compared to his SEA Games gold medal’s time at the 2014 Asian Games in the Republic of Korea, and will head to Singapore with the mission of defending his 1,500m freestyle title.

Tran Duy Khoi is another promising star of Vietnamese swimming at the SEA Games. Despite his young age of 18, Khoi has acquired an admirable medal collection, including three national gold medals (one in 2011 and two in 2012) and most notably four other golds at the 7th National Games in 2014, which contributed to the Ho Chi Minh City swimming team placing second overall.

With such outstanding athletes, the Vietnamese swimming team is confident in its possibilities of realising the envisaged goal set for the 28th SEA Games and becoming one of Vietnam’s ‘gold mines’ at the Games.

Nhan Dan