Countries’ rankings at the end of the South East Asian Games in Vietnam on Sunday.

Laos ranks 9th at SEA Games, sets bar higher for 2023

The Ministry of Education and Sports will initiate a rigorous training programme for Lao athletes following a disappointing placing of 9th out of 11 participating nations at the just ended South East Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam.
The ministry and sports federations will make a concerted effort to train up and select the best qualified athletes for participation in next year’s SEA Games, to be held in Cambodia.
Over the course of the intervening 12 months, Lao athletes will have much more time to prepare than they did for the Vietnam games, with training programmes massively curtailed because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
So they will up their game and set the bar higher in their quest for medals at the next edition of the games in Cambodia.
But it will be another tough fight, as other competing countries are much better equipped to go all the way to the podium, thanks to their much larger populations and better funding for training regimes.
Laos’ martial artists had high hopes of medals at the Vietnam games, especially in the fighting categories of various disciplines. In the end, they were unable to win gold medals from these events, but managed to pick up two golds in vovinam dance events.
By the end of the games on Sunday, Laos had chalked up two gold, seven silver and 25 bronze medals.
The government will reward the medalists by giving 10 million kip to gold medal winners, seven million kip to each of the silver medalists, and five million kip to bronze medalists.
The government contributed 9 billion kip to support athletes during their training for the games.
In the last edition of the games, held in the Philippines in 2019, Lao athletes competed in 24 sports, winning a gold medal in kickboxing, and five silver and 29 bronze medals in other sports.
After returning from Vietnam, the athletes will train for the 11th National Games, which take place in Xieng Khuang province at the end of this year.

By Sangkhomsay Bubphanouvong
(Latest Update May 24, 2022)