SEA Games 2021 to be held from May 12-23 in 2022

The 2021 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Vietnam will be held from May 12 to 23, 2022, the country’s Olympic committee has announced.

Originally slated to take place from Nov 21 to Dec 2 this year, a COVID-19 wave that hit several provinces forced the postponement of the sports event.

According to the Vietnam Olympic Committee website, the new dates do not coincide with major global or regional sporting events, although it will be a tight schedule for some Singaporean athletes.

Apart from the SEA Games, the Commonwealth Games (Jul 28 to Aug 8) and the Asian Games (Sep 10 to Sep 25) will be held next year too.

The SEA Games are expected to attract nearly 20,000 participants, including about 7,000 athletes from 11 countries, according to reports from Vietnam media.

As well as Olympic disciplines, sports are likely to include billiards and snooker, bodybuilding, chess, bowling and kurash, an ancient form of Uzbek wrestling.

Vietnam previously hosted the multi-sports competition in 2003.

The ASEAN Para Games 2021, which was scheduled to take place from Dec 17 to Dec 23 this year, has been cancelled however. The next edition of the Para Games will take place in 2023 in Cambodia.