Mountain events open the athletics schedule
The concentrated athletics programme at Vietnam's 2026 National Sports Games starts on November 20. Men's and women's mountain cross-country races are scheduled first, from November 20 to 23 around Bà Rá mountain in Phước Long ward, Đồng Nai. Stadium events and road walking will take place in Ho Chi Minh City.
The calendar separates preparations, qualifying and medal sessions. Referees undergo professional training from November 22 to 24. Stadium qualifying follows on November 25 and 26 for 26 events, divided evenly between 13 men's and 13 women's disciplines.
Competitors must meet performance standards set by the national sports authority and Vietnam Athletics Federation. In qualifying for throwing and shot-put events, each athlete has a maximum of three attempts.
Medal sessions follow qualifying
The official medal programme runs from the morning of November 27 through December 1. National-team athletes returning to represent their home units are expected to strengthen the competition, but the announced schedule does not establish any results.
The opening mountain races should not be confused with every stadium final starting at once. Similarly, the 26-event figure describes the specified qualifying programme rather than the complete medal total for athletics.
Other National Games sports have earlier dates: table tennis completed its programme in August, while muay is scheduled during October. That provides context for the distributed Games calendar, without changing the separate November and December dates announced for athletics.