Thailand's goal: 100 golds, overall crown

MANILA, Philippines - On the eve of the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos, the head of the Thailand Olympic Committee bared his country’s strong intention of keeping the overall crown in the 11-nation regional event.

“Anything less than the overall title will be a disappointment for us,” Gen Yutthasak Sasiprabha, the TOC president, told The Bangkok Post.

“We expect to win about 100 gold medals,” he added.

The Thais, who hosted the event two years ago, is hoping to emerge as the overall champion anew and to help them achieve that goal are 800 of their finest athletes.

A report that came out of The Post said the Thais are counting heavily on athletics, the centerpiece event of the event that lasts until Dec. 18. It’s the first time Laos is hosting the SEAG.

The Thais hope to win 17 gold medals in athletics alone. They also hope to do well in shooting (13), boxing (6), weightlifting (5), sepak takraw (5), tennis (5), muay (5), petanque (5), golf (4) and judo (4) with a couple more golds expected in volleyball (3), taekwondo (3), pencak silat (3), archery (2), cycling (2), swimming (2), badminton (2), billiards and snooker (2), football (2), karate (2), fin swimming (2), wrestling (2), wushu (2) and table tennis (1).

Two years ago, as hosts, the Thais won 183 gold, 123 silver and 101 bronze medals and was the runaway champion. A far second was Malaysia (68-52-96) followed by Vietnam (64-58-82), Indonesia (56-64-82), Singapore (43-43-41), the Philippines (42-91-96), Myanmar (14-26-48), Laos (5-7-32), Cambodia (2-5-11), Brunei (1-1-4) and Timor Leste with nothing to show.

The Thai government has put up an incentive package of 200,000 baht for every gold, 100,000 for a silver and 50,000 for the bronze, just enough to get all their 800 athletes, probably the biggest delegation in the Games, to go for the gold and bring home the bacon.

If they do, it will be the first time in the last four editions of the SEA Games that a non-host would win the overall crown. Thailand, ironically, was also the last country to do it when it won the overall crown in Brunei in 1999.

The chef-de-mission of the RP Team, Mario Tanchangco, said the race for the overall crown will be a three-cornered race among Thailand, Vietnam (the 2003 overall champion) and the Philippines (the 2007 overall champion).   – Abac Cordero