First provincial Martial Arts Festival celebrating Party and welcoming Lunar New Year 2025 bound for a successful year for local sports sector
Monday, 17/02/2025
Early February 16, the first provincial Martial Arts Festival celebrating the Party and welcoming the Lunar New Year 2025 took place in a lively and enthusiastic atmosphere at provincial Conference and Exhibition Center. The festival brought together 15 martial arts units of the province, with the participation of over 200 athletes.
With the diversity of martial arts, from the initial opening performances to individual demonstrations of each style, the festival partially highlighted the essence of both Vietnamese and global martial arts. The first provincial Martial Arts Festival 2025 was the first event organized by the local sports sector this year, aimed at celebrating major holidays. It also served as a platform for martial artists to showcase their talent, honor the quintessence of martial arts, contributing to preserving and promoting the traditional values of Vietnamese martial arts such as traditional martial arts, Vovinam, Tan Khanh Ba Tra martial arts while also showcasing the values of modern martial arts, including Karate, Judo, Pencak Silat, Arnis, Wushu, Muay Thai and Taekwondo.
Recently, Binh Duong has been recognized by experts as a province with a well-developed sports movement, ranging from high-performance sports to mass sports. Among them, martial arts holds an important position and has long been an essential part of the province's sports training system, making a positive contribution to overall achievements at national and international competitions.
Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao was founded in 1938 by the late Grandmaster Nguyen Loc. Vovinam is built on the principle of "Cương Nhu" (hard and soft) working together. One of the most beautiful techniques in Vovinam is a spectacular flying scissor-kick that disables an opponent by seizing the neck. This is a unique and characteristic move of this martial art. With the aim of restoring, preserving and developing the essence of Vietnamese martial arts, Vovinam - Viet Vo Dao was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage on November 10, 2023. Binh Duong provincial Vovinam Federation was officially established on December 15, 2012.Karate was developed from Japan. In Binh Duong, there are currently over 50 Karate clubs with more than 2,500 practitioners training regularly. Recently, Binh Duong Karate has been a key sport, contributing numerous national and international gold medals to both Binh Duong and Vietnam’s sports achievements. In 2025, Binh Duong Karate athletes aim at achieving the highest results at national competitions and the 33rd SEA Games, which will take place by the end of 2025 in Thailand.Being developed in Binh Dinh, Tan Khanh Ba Tra martial arts school is a traditional kind of martial arts that has been refined by martial arts masters over generations in the new land of Tan Khanh village, now part of Tan Phuoc Khanh ward in Tan Uyen city and Binh Chuan ward in Thuan An city, Binh Duong province. This martial arts school was officially recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism on February 3, 2021. This recognition is a great honor and pride for the Tan Khanh Ba Tra martial arts school in particular and the people of Binh Duong province in general.Pencak Silat, a martial art originating from Indonesia, was introduced to Vietnam in 1989. The beauty of Pencak Silat lies in its skillful combination of defensive and counter-attacking techniques. At the 2024 World Pencak Silat Championship, held in the UAE, the Vietnam Pencak Silat team excellently won 18 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 5 bronze medals. Among these, Pencak Silat athletes from Binh Duong contributed 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal.Taekwondo, originating from South Korea, is known for its powerful, flexible, and visually stunning techniques, requiring a great deal of agility, speed and precision. Provincial Taekwondo Martial Arts Association was established in 1989 and was renamed provincial Taekwondo Federation in 2021. Currently, the province’s Taekwondo team has contributed 9 athletes to the Vietnam Taekwondo Team. At the 2024 National Championship, the team won 3 gold medals and 2 silver medals, securing second place overall.The success of the Binh Duong Martial Arts Festival 2025 will demonstrate the vibrant life of martial arts in the modern society, spreading the spirit of physical fitness and promoting awareness of health training, especially among the youth. It also affirms provincial leaders’ commitment to the local sports development, aiming at making the province one of the leading sports hubs in the country
