Carrots dangled for SEA Games athletes
Carrots dangled for SEA Games athletes
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP): More than medals are at stake in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games beginning Saturday, with governments promising cash and other incentives to winners even as the region recovers from an economic slowdown.
Host Brunei, which has not won a gold medal in the games' six- year history, is offering a new Mitsubishi car as well as B$40,000 (US$23,670) for the first athlete to earn the yellow metal.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's oil-rich kingdom will pay athletes B$40,000 for a gold medal at the games, B$20,000 for a silver medal and B$5,000 for a bronze.
Brunei is banking on the combat sport silat, the Malay art of self-defense, to break their duck.
Singapore will give S$10,000 (US$5,900) to a gold medal winner in an individual event, while a team gold is good for S$20,000.
Malaysia, traditionally strong in athletics and eying 35 gold medals, will reward each individual gold medalist with 5,000 ringgit ($1,315) and 1,000 ringgit for each gold medalist in a team event.
No Southeast Asian nation was spared from the financial crisis which erupted in mid-1997 and plunged the region into a recession. The region is recovering from crisis amid severe government belt-tightening.
But sports seems to have survived the government axe. Vietnam will give $2,000 and Thailand has allocated 50,000 baht ($1,351) for every gold winner.
Thailand together with Indonesia, which have also reserved an unknown amount of cash for their medal winners, are expected to take the lions' share of the Brunei games gold medals.
Indonesia won the last games two years ago while Thailand won in 1995.
The Philippine Sports Commission, the state body financing athletic development, is offering 75,000 pesos ($2,000) for a gold winner, 50,000 pesos to a silver medalist and 30,000 pesos to a bronze winner, said Gus Villanueva, spokesman for the delegation.
Apart from that, sports officials have hinted successful athletes will get additional rewards from Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who gave one million pesos and awarded a "Legion of Honor" to Filipino 9-ball billiards player and SEA Games hopeful Efren "Bata" Reyes when he won the world professional championship last month.
Officials say special awards are also being given to winning teams in the widely-followed soccer tournament of the SEA Games.
The Vietnamese Football Federation, for example, have promised $3,570 for every win their team earned in the tournament and $14,000 for a finals berth.
Soccer crazy Vietnam is virtually in the semifinals together with Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
A soft drinks company has pledged $70,000 to the Vietnamese team for a European training stint and $10,000 if they entered the final.