Five on Friday: 5 unusual sports in the limelight at the 31st SEA Games

SINGAPORE: After a one-year delay brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 SEA Games are finally under way in Vietnam.

While marquee sports like football, swimming, athletics and badminton will always attract the most eyeballs, one of the great things about the SEA Games is that it shines a spotlight on niche, unheralded and downright unusual ones.

Some of the more offbeat inclusions like underwater hockey and obstacle course racing have unfortunately been dropped from this year’s line-up, but there are still plenty of opportunities to expand your sporting horizons over the next 10 days.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

Taekwondo, pencak silat, wushu and muay Thai are fixtures at the SEA Games, but not every Asian martial art gets its chance to shine regularly at the event.

After close to a decade in the wilderness, the Vietnamese martial art of vovinam will once again take centre stage in its country of origin.

Combining the words “vo”, meaning “martial arts”, and “vinam” for “Vietnam”, the sport was founded in 1938 by Nguyen Loc, according to the Vovinam-VietVoDao World Federation.

Nguyen had combined the strengths of traditional wrestling and other Vietnamese martial arts and codified them in a new discipline.

A variety of vovinam events with and without weapons will be held at the Soc Son Gymnasium during this SEA Games. Some involve individuals separated by weight class, while others will see pairs compete.

And look out for events which feature attack and defence scenarios – where a player defends against three others with weapons.

Vietnam is of course a dominant force in the sport, but they typically face keen competition from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The 31st SEA Games is only the second time