Meeting to announce the establishment of the Southeast Asian Vovinam Federation (SEAVF) was held in Cambodia on Tuesday, a token of the wide spreading of the Vietnamese martial arts after the world federation and the Asian federation were set up in 2008 and February this year respectively.
Representatives of five countries including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia attended the event.
Thailand and Brunei didn’t attend the ceremony, but they technically support the establishment since the two are members of the World Vovinam Federation from 2008.
At the meeting, delegates voted Cambodian Vovinam Federation chairman Rat Sokhorn as SEAVF chairman. Vo Danh Hai from Vietnam and three representatives from Indonesia, Laos and Malaysia are vice chairmen.
Last year, Vovinam was approved to be included for official competition at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta in November.
Vovinam, created in 1938 in Hanoi by Master Nguyen Loc, is now popular in around 35 countries and territories where there are hundreds of thousands of practitioners.
The fighting technique, which involves both unarmed and weapons combat, uses the opponent’s momentum to counterattack. Its range of techniques includes the use of hands, elbows, and legs to throw, wrestle, and lever.
