Difficulty from host Thailand
General Secretary of the Vietnam Billiards & snooker Federation, who is also in charge of billiards (Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports) - Mr. Doan Tuan Anh said that we plan to participate in billiards at the 33rd SEA Games. Currently, the Vietnam Billiards Team has not been established even though the 2025 National Billiards & snooker Championship has ended.
The management is reviewing the force to select athletes for the 33rd SEA Games, so there are many reservations. The most difficult thing about this Congress is that the host does not organize a group of carom and pool competitions. We have good players specializing in this event. Vietnamese billiards will modestly strive to win medals in Thailand because their strengths have been cut, Mr. Doan Tuan Anh once discussed.
Statistics show that the Vietnamese billiards team won Gold Medals in 3 consecutive editions including the 30th SEA Games (with 1 Gold Medal), the 31st SEA Games (with 2 Gold Medals) and the 32nd SEA Games (with 2 Gold Medals).
Accordingly, at the 30th SEA Games, Ngo Dinh Nai won the 1-cushion carom championship. At the 31st SEA Games, player Tran Thanh Tu won the carom 1 lane and Tran Quyet Chien led the carom 3 lane. At the 32nd SEA Games, Tran Thanh Tu won the 3-cushion carom while Le Thi Ngoc Hue won the women's 1-cushion carom.
However, Vietnamese billiards have lost their hands in the snooker event with this Congress. In fact, the Thai billiards team has strengths in the snooker event group. Along with maintaining the advantage of being the host of the 33rd SEA Games, Thailand decided to only organize competitions for 10 sets of billiards medals and focus on the British billiards (2 sets of medals) and snooker (8 sets of medals).
Why do you use it?
The top players who are capable of competing for the SEA Games Gold Medal are Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu, Luong Duc Thien, Duong Quoc Hoang, Bui Xuan Vang and Tran Quyet Chien. They certainly won't be going to Thailand at the end of this year because of their lack of school advantage.
At this time, a group of top players in Vietnam such as Duc Thien and Quoc Hoang are participating in the 2025 World 9-Ball Pool Championship in Saudi Arabia (closing on July 27). Previously, Tran Quyet Chien played the 2025 World Cup carom in Türkiye, Portugal with the highest performance.
"We are still preparing to the best of our professional capacity with the players participating in the 33rd SEA Games. The snooker group is not a strength, but we will focus as much as possible so as not to disappoint fans," said Mr. Doan Tuan Anh.
The option discussed by the Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports and the Vietnam Billiards & snooker Federation is to send the Vietnam Billiards Team to participate in the 33rd SEA Games using socialized funding due to the low ability to win Gold Medals.
2 years ago at the 32nd SEA Games, athletes from Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia won Gold Medals in the snooker event. This year, this group of players are direct opponents of Vietnamese players. In the 30th and 31st SEA Games, we had Tran Le Anh Tuan win the highest achievement in the snooker category, the Bronze Medal.
At the end of the final round of the 2025 National billiards & snooker Championship, player Thai Van Nam won the Gold Medal in men's snooker, Nguyen Tang Doan Anh Dung was the champion of the British billiards.
In particular, the tournament's Charter specifically states: "Through the tournament, the manager will check and evaluate the development of billiards & snooker in provinces, cities and sectors across the country and is one of the bases for selecting excellent athletes to participate in international, regional and continental tournaments". Most likely, they will be a candidate selected to compete in the 33rd SEA Games.
