Non-Olympic events spark SEAG romp

The SEA Games euphoria has long since died down with the national athletes and the country’s top sports officials now training their sights on the Doha Asian Games and ultimately the Olympics.

But looking back at the SEAG historic feat, one could only relish how Team Philippines was able to hold its own against Thailand in their spirited battle for supremacy in Olympic sports and how the hosts dominated the action in the non-Olympic disciplines.

According to Joseph Dumuk, chief statistician of Team Philippines, the Philippines and Thailand were neck and neck in the battle for gold medals in the 24 Olympic sports played in the Games.

The hosts stamped their class in eight (archery, baseball, boxing, equestrian, fencing, rowing, softball and taekwondo) while the Thais were tops in five (medal-rich athletics and shooting plus judo, volleyball and weightlifting).

However, Thailand edged the Philippines, 69 to 67 gold medals out of the 303 that were awarded in the Olympic sports.

However, the Philippines’ tremendous edge in the over-all medal count came from its dominance in the 16-non-Olympic disciplines.

The Filipinos bagged 46 gold medals (about one in every three of the 142 awarded) through scintillating performances in arnis, billiards and snooker, bowling, dancesport, golf, muay thai, traditional boat race (where they won all six events) and wushu (the only sport which gave the Philippines a double digit gold medal harvest.

On the other hand,Dumuk said, the Thais — hosts of the 24th SEA Games — managed to win only 17 golds or about one in every nine.

The Philippines also used its prerogative as hosts very well, Dumuk said. Of the 40 sports played, 12 were not in the Vietnam SEA Games two years ago where Team Philippines finished fourth in the over-all medal tally with 42 golds. In these 12 sports, Filipinos kept 20 of the 56 gold medals handed out and were supreme in eight disciplines — arnis, baseball, bowling, dancesport, Equestrian, golf, muay thai and softball.

The above was complemented by the scrapping of fin swimming, hand ball and shuttlecock where the Vietnamese snatched 22 of the 25 gold medals on offer in 2003.

Dumuk also said that Team RP could not have attained the SEA Games over-all supremacy if not for the cooperation among the Philippine Olympic Committee, the national sports associations and the Philippine Sports Commission and the support not only of the government and the private sectors but the throng of Filipino fans who cheered for the Filipino athletes during the Games.