Khuat Phuong Anh dominates other competitors to win a gold medal with  a record of 2 minutes 8.74 seconds in the women's 800m. (photo: Duong Thuat/ VOV)

Writer Sazali Abdul Aziz said that after playing bridesmaids to Thailand for almost two decades, Vietnam finally usurped their rivals as the top nation in athletics in SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in 2017. They followed it up two years later in the Philippines, and are looking to make it three in a row now that the SEA Games have returned to Vietnam for the first time since 2003. Vietnam won 13 gold medals on Monday, close to their target of at least 15 gold medals in 47 athletic events.

Aziz quoted the Secretary General of the Vietnam Athletics Federation Nguyen Manh Hung as saying that the recent progress of Vietnamese athletics has been due to a strong investment in the goal of participating in the Olympic Games set by Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in 2015.

Some 6 million USD was invested in winning medals at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, as well as the 2018 Asian Games.

At the Rio Olympics in 2016, shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh brought home Vietnam’s first gold medal. Two years later, athlete Quach Thi Lan won a gold medal in the 400m hurdles and Bui Thi Thu Thao won a silver medal in the long jump at Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia.

Former sprinter Gary Yeo, now Singapore Athletics' vice-president of training and selection, said this financial support has allowed teams to send their athletes to train and compete in Europe, where they gained invaluable experience.

M. Hung said he is hopeful that the current crop of champions will be an inspiration to the young talent, as Vietnam has big ambitions in athletics.

Hung said Vietnam has a two-phase plan. The objective in Phase One is to win regional gold medals regularly by 2030. In Phase Two, Vietnam hopes to have athletes who can compete at the Olympics and win a medal there by 2050. Vietnam is going to invest more in training athletes to reach that objective.