Information related to the competition program of the 34th SEA Games in 2027 in Malaysia attracted the attention of the regional sports community.
Although there has been no specific announcement about the sports that are not present, the Malaysian media has revealed a notable detail. Accordingly, two sports groups that are considered the strengths of Vietnamese sports, rowing and canoeing, are unlikely to appear at the 34th SEA Games.
According to the country's media, Malaysia will host the 34th SEA Games at 4 different clusters of locations, in which Sarawak state will play a central role.
Sarawak plans to host 17 sports, including swimming, weightlifting, basketball, bowling, bowling on the pitch, electronic sports, figure sports, golf, cricket, archery, shooting, muay, iron badminton, squash, taekwondo, tennis and wushu.
Penang Cluster will host 6 sports including sepak Takraw, bi da, judo, boxing, table tennis and floorball. Johor only organizes football. Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur will feature 14 events, including badminton, cycling, volleyball, basketball, horse riding, badminton, karate, boxing, figure skating, athletics, pencak silat, sailing, volleyball and water figure skating.
From the list of events expected to be held, it is possible to recognize the absence of events and boat racing. These are two groups of sports that Vietnamese sports often dominate at the SEA Games arena.
At the 33rd SEA Games, the Vietnamese weightlifting team won 10 gold medals out of a total of 12 events, completely overwhelming opponents in the region.
Similarly, in rowing, Vietnam leads with 4 gold medals out of a total of 10 sets of medals. The canoeing team also brought home 2 gold medals.
If these two events are eliminated from the 34th SEA Games, it is predicted that the Vietnam Sports Delegation will have a significant decrease in the number of gold medals.
