VietNamNet Bridge - The third Asian Indoor Games (AIG) will be held for the first time in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and selected provinces and cities in Vietnam from October 30 to November 8, 2009.

The AIG are expected to attract the participation of 10,000 people including 1,000 senior officials, over 5,000 athletes and coaches, and 2,000 reporters from 45 nations and territories in Asia.

The athletes will compete in athletics, short course swimming, finswimming, dance sport, archery, petanque, wushu, pencak silat, women’s boxing, shuttle-cock kicking, sepak takraw, aerobics, chess, Chinese chess (Xiangqi), futsal, Thai muay, basketball, E-Sports, traditional Vietnamese martial arts (Vovinam), billiards&snooker, kurash (central Asian wrestling), bowling, kick boxing, kabaddi, Lion and Dragon Dancing, a demonstration of the martial art jujitsu and beltwrestling.

Hoang Vinh Giang, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Olympics Committee, says the opening ceremony will be held at My Dinh National Stadium on October 30 and the closing ceremony will take place at Quan Ngua Sports Palace on November 8.

The organising board has completed the arrangement of locations for the competitions as well as accommodations for the participants. Many competition halls have been upgraded to prepare for the festival and new equipment has been purchased and installed.

Vietnam aims to rank 10^th out of 45 participating nations in the games.

(Source: VOV)