Issued on: 21/05/2022 – 15:20Modified: 21/05/2022 – 15:18
Hanoi (AFP) – Confronted with a machete, the wrestleer leaps and locks his legs Throughout The completely different man’s neck, bringing him crashing Proper dpersonal to a cacophony of cheers.
That is vovinam, Vietnam’s acrobatic martworkial artwork with roots courting again to the nation’s wrestle for indepfinishence, and It is displaying On The ocean Video games for The primary time since 2013.
Proponents are educated To make the most of not solely their palms and legs to grapple a rival to The underside, However in addition ffinish off assailants armed with blades.
Brief for “Vo Viet Nam” (actually “Vietnamese Martworkial Arts”) it was impressed by nationalists who sought an finish to the nation’s French colonial rule.
Created Inside the Nineteen Thirties, it borrows from partworks of Chinese language kung fu and completely different Asian types but was crafted to go well with the Vietnamese of the time.
“Prior to now, the Vietnamese people have been small,” SEA Video games silver medallist Tran The Thuong informed AFP outdoors a packed gymnasium shut to the capital Hanoi the place the artworkists, Males And women, grappled in matches.
“(It was Produced from) Definitely one of the biggest partworks of completely different martworkial artworks and mixed To go well with the Vietnamese.”
Promoting nationalist undertones, vovinam went on a rocky road. It was first suppressed by the French earlier than being banned by each the South Vietnamese and the later communist authorities.
Indonesia’s group competes Inside The lads’s a quantity of weapon apply class of vovinam Nhac NGUYEN AFP
However masters of it continued, and it was allowed as quickly as extra in its house nation, earlier than spreading to Greater than 70 nations The world over.
First launched On The ocean Video games in 2011, The sport had a second displaying in 2013 in Myanmar but was absent for a quantity of years earlier than returning to the ring in Hanoi.
Flying strikes, punches, kicks
On Saturday, over a thousand followers crowded a gymnasium hall about 40km (25 miles) north of central Hanoi To watch seven nations contest for A pair of of the Video games’ 15 vovinam gold medals.
Before the spectators, proponents in blue uniforms with coloured belts tied Throughout the waist faced Every completely different as they fought for factors.
Occasions Inside The sport both Happen round a one-on-one wrestle the place combatants battle for factors, or in a choreographed current the place two or extra proponents Exhibit their expertise.
In a single current involving a machete, Thuong and a partworkner disarmed Every completely different using flying strikes, punches, kicks and grappling manuevers.
“The expertise of groups at this SEA Video games are very extreme. The athletes from completely different nations have acquired this martworkial artwork very properly,” he said, after judges awarded him the silver and the gold to Cambodia.
“Even Vietnam misplaced in the direction of them. It is not simply the Vietnamese That are good in vovinam.”
A small but steadily rising supporter base, it has Greater than 2.5 million practitioners right now All by way of the place Inside the world, Based mostly on state-personaled Vietnam Information Agency.
With a presence On The ocean Video games and with its personal world championships, its leaders Want to increase The sport’s horizons previous its current area of curiosity, Vietnam’s vovinam group head coach Nguyen Hong Qui said.
“Vovinam So far has been developed In further than 70 nations On the eartworkh and there are regional and world tournaments,” he said.
“We’re wanting forward to develop vovinam further So as To place it into the Olympics.”
© 2022 AFP