Faced with a machete, a fighter leaps and locks his legs around another man’s neck, bringing him crashing down to a cacophony of cheers.
This is vovinam, Vietnam’s acrobatic martial art with roots dating back to the country’s struggle for independence, and it is showing at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for the first time since 2013.
Proponents are trained to use not only their hands and legs to grapple a rival to the ground, but also fend off assailants armed with blades.
Photo: AFP
Short for “Vo Viet Nam” (literally “Vietnamese martial arts”) it was inspired by nationalists who sought an end to the country’s French colonial rule.
Created in the 1930s, it borrows from elements of Chinese kung fu and other Asian styles, but was crafted to suit the Vietnamese of the time.
“In the past, the Vietnamese people were small,” SEA Games silver medalist Tran The Thuong said outside a packed gymnasium near the capital, Hanoi, where the artists, men and women, grappled in matches.
It was made from “the best parts of other martial arts and combined to fit the Vietnamese,” he said.
Promoting nationalist undertones, vovinam went on a rocky road. It was first suppressed by the French before being banned by the South Vietnamese and the later communist government.
Masters of it persisted, and it was allowed once more in its home country, before spreading to more than 70 nations across the world.
First introduced at the SEA Games in 2011, the sport had a second showing in 2013 in Myanmar, but was absent for several years before returning to the ring in Hanoi.
On Saturday, more than 1,000 fans crowded a gymnasium hall about 40km north of central Hanoi to watch seven nations contest for some of the Games’ 15 vovinam gold medals.
Before the spectators, proponents in blue uniforms with colored belts tied around the waist faced each other as they fought for points.
Events in the sport either take place around a one-on-one fight where combatants battle for points, or in a choreographed show where two or more proponents demonstrate their skills.
In one display involving a machete, Thuong and a partner disarmed each other using flying moves, punches, kicks and grappling maneuvers.
“The skills of teams at this SEA Games are very high. The athletes from other countries have acquired this martial art very well,” he said, after judges awarded him the silver and the gold to Cambodia.
“Even Vietnam lost against them. It isn’t just the Vietnamese that are good in vovinam,” he added.
With a small, but steadily growing, support base, it has more than 2.5 million practitioners today all over the world, state-owned Vietnam News Agency said.
With a presence at the SEA Games and with its own world championships, its leaders are looking to expand the sport’s horizons past its current niche, Vietnam’s vovinam team head coach Nguyen Hong Qui said.
“Vovinam so far has been developed in more than 70 countries in the world and there are regional and world tournaments,” he said.
“We are looking forward to develop vovinam further in order to put it into the Olympics,” he added.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
RSS