Roller to become new sport in Vietnam

Athletes competed at the Roller Sports Hanoi Open held last November (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The Skating Federation of Vietnam (SFV) has added roller sports as a member sport and agreed to rename itself the Skating and Roller Federation of Vietnam.

Speaking at a recent online congress, SFV President Dang Ha Viet said that roller and figure skating have similar characteristics in training and competing regulations and referees.

“Vietnam is a tropical country so it is difficult to have favourable conditions to train figure skating. More than 90 percent of professional figure skating athletes originally come from roller sports. Currently, the roller sports movement is spontaneously organised. SFV wants to support the sport so that it can be widely spread through the nation,” he said.

“We also hope to create regular competitions in the community to strongly develop roller which could be a professional sport in the near future.”

Tran Duc Phan, deputy head of the Vietnam Sports Administration, said: “Figure skating and roller are two sports of the Asian Games and Olympics, and will be named in the SEA Games soon.

“Roller sports are suitable to Vietnamese people’s physique and national facilities. This makes us believe in a brilliant future for the sport. Adding roller as a member of SFV is suitable at this time to lift it up as an Olympic sport in Vietnam.”

In 2020, many tournaments and training courses abroad were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to hire foreign coaches were also delayed.

However, the SFV successfully held on- and off-ice events domestically including the Roller Sports Hanoi Open and Roller Sports HCM City Open with participants competing in different categories and age groups.

Among them, Nguyen Nhut Linh won two gold medals in the men’s 1,000m at the above competitions and Mai Hoai Phuong took gold in the men’s 1,500m at the Roller Sports Hanoi Open.

The federation has selected outstanding athletes to be the national team’s core who will represent Vietnam at international events.