Hanoi 2003 SEA Games - Handover to 2005 | Must-See Moment (12.13.2003)
Copyright (c) 2003 22nd SEA Games Organizing Committee
The 22nd SEA Games, held from 5 to 13 December 2003, was the first time in the history of the Southeast Asian Games that Vietnam had hosted the event, with Hanoi being the centrepiece for this edition. Around more than 5,000 athletes from 11 Southeast Asian countries participated in these Games, including the then-newborn nation of Timor Leste (East Timor), which makes its debut in the event.
South Vietnam was among the founding members of the Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games while North Vietnam had never competed, but the country was visibly absent in the wake of the infamous Vietnam War. After decades of conflict and isolation, a unified Vietnam then joined the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1989, where they won only 3 gold medals.
2003 has been 28 years since the war is over but ended in a communist victory, but with a desire for peace and development, Vietnam has in recent years actively got itself integrated into multilateral co-operation and taking part in international sporting competition, which thus reflected the Games' motto 'Solidarity - Cooperation - Development'. In contrast, the 2003 SEA Games had marked itself as a global recognition of Vietnam’s efforts to make strides in the context of continual difficulties.
This here is from the Games' closing ceremony, in which Nguyen Danh Thai and Hoang Van Nghien hands the folded SEA Games flag to Roberto Pagdanganan and then-Manila mayor Lito Atienza, symbolizing the handover to the Philippines, the hosts for the 2005 Games.
