'See you in Indonesia': Thailand keeps reign as region's best

VIENTIANE - In a night of dance and music depicting their rich history and their march to the future, thousands of young men and women from this humble city of 600,000 at the heart of a former kingdom joined hands with friends from neighboring nations in send off rites concluding another episode of the Southeast Asian Games.

The bulk of the Philippine contingent was still around to enjoy the two-hour celebrations where over 3,000 athletes from the host and 10 other countries, from overall champion Thailand to the newly established state of East Timor, exchanged uniforms and pins and hugged one another as friends after 10 days of battle.

The SEAG officialdom paid tribute to this agricultural country of over six million, host for the first time in 50 years, in staging a successful biennial meet as it turned over the SEAG flag to next host Indonesia before extinguishing the Sacred Flame amidst a flood of fireworks.

The athletes of Thailand and Vietnam, the top two finishers overall, go back to their country proud that they have won the most medals and, more significantly, re-established their prominence in neutral territory, erasing suspicions of game fixing when they hosted the Games in the last four years.

Thailand won as host in 2007 with a preposterous gold medal haul of 183, more than half the combined tally of the 10 other countries. Vietnam took 158 gold medals as host in 2003 while the Philippines had 113 in hosting the Manila SEA Games in 2005. Malaysia had 111 as host in 2001.

Laos, the neutral territory, was to be the showdown to determine who truly are the region’s champions.

Thailand led with 86, Vietnam was second with 83, Indonesia was third with 43 while Malaysia was fourth with 40. The Philippines was fifth with 38.

The Thais and Vietnamese concentrated where they had a vast reservoir of talents – the martial arts – which accounted for over 70 percent of their medal haul.

Thailand, accused of rigging the boxing competitions in 2007 when they won all but one of the 16 events, clobbered the opposition, winning seven of 10 gold medals with a continuing program under a Cuban coach who has trained the Thai national pool the last five years.

The organizers have limited participation of each country to only 10 of the 16 events.

The Philippines had a good harvest of five for second.

“I am impressed with performance of our boxers,” said boxing president Ricky Vargas, “With our program in place we will be able to fight the Thais head on.”

Thailand and the Philippines had been coached by Cuban boxers although the last Cuban mentor left the country last August and was replaced by Filipino coaches. Both countries have the same kind of players – they are medium built ideal for the lower divisions and they all come from poor families.

But the comparison between Thailand and the Philippines in martial arts stops there.

Thailand ruled muay thai (six golds), not quite surprisingly as it invented the sport, but it also was dominant in taekwondo (six). It continued to reign in athletics with 14 golds mostly in the track events, beating Go Teng Kok’s wards whose seven golds came mostly from the field events.

Thailand also was overall winner in shooting (10), tennis (2) and swimming (14).

Vietnam reigned in judo (9), pencak selat (6), wrestling (7) and wushu (7), where the Philippines, once the region’s powerhouse, was left with only two.

The Philippines was overall winner in only one sport – billiards where it had a harvest of 3-1-2 gold-silver-bronze medals.

However, this is barely 30 percent of the 10 gold medals at stake in billiards and snooker considering that the Philippines sent a powerhouse team led by former and current world champions Efren “Bata” Reyes, Django Bustmante, Reynado Grandea, Dennis Orcollo, Alex Pagulayan, Roberto Gomez, Ronnie Alcano, Warren Kiamco, Rodolfo Luat and Ramil Gallego.

Anyone could have beaten the opposition on any day, any place. The two golds came from Rubilen Amit in the 8-ball and 9-ball women’s singles and Alcano in the 9-ball singles.

The Philippines took off on a wrong foot when 12 national cyclists were not allowed participation by the international cycling federation, and the POC was later severely criticized for disallowing the only qualified athlete – 2007 SEAG gold medalist Maritess Bitbit – to participate in the women’s event.

So, the Philippine contingent is coming back after 10 days of battle led by its athletic heroes.

Many will grab the credit, but those who failed will not blame themselves or resign. The mud-slinging begins.