Malaysia revels in SEA Games triumph

Tue, 18 Sep 2001, 00:00 WIB | Source: AP

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad closed the 21st Southeast Asian Games here on Monday in
which the host won the overall championship.

But the region's sports standards remained far behind records
set by other Asian competitions.

No announcement was made at the closing ceremony, but the
national news agency Bernama reported immediately afterwards that
Saturday would be a public holiday to celebrate the achievement.

The ceremony was moved back for an hour to allow people to
attend regular prayers. But it restarted when three giant
squirrels, the mascot of the games, parachuted into the National
Stadium along with 14 others carrying the flags of the 10
competing nations and the SEA Games.

The Malaysians, who were briefly threatened when Thailand took
the lead on Saturday evening, won three golds on the final day of
the competition.

Mun Yee and Rosatimah Muhamad won the women's 10-meter diving
platform and compatriots Rosharissham Roslan and Yeoh Ken Nee
captured the gold in the men's competition.

In the final event of the games, Sara Kamil Yusof and Suzzana
Ghazali Bujang turned the swimming pool at the National Aquatics
Center here into their own gymnastics arena to win gold in the
synchronized swimming duet and deliver the last medal to the new
champion.

Their victories increased the host's overall medal tally to
111 gold, 75 silver and 85 bronze medals.

Thailand, which won two equestrian golds on Monday, lifted its
total to 103 golds, 86 silvers and 88 bronzes for second place.

Winning two silvers and a bronze on the final day, former
champion Indonesia settled for third place with 72 golds, 74
silvers and 80 bronzes.

Equestrian Mohamad Qabil Fathil, 21, of Malaysia was named the
best male athlete of the 10-day games after winning four gold
medals.

Southeast Asia's fastest woman, Supavadee Khaw Peag of
Thailand, who won four gold medals in athletics, was named the
best female athlete.

"I am very proud of our achievement. As hosts, our athletes
were under pressure to become champions ... but we have finally
proven ourselves," said Mazlan Ahmad, head of the Malaysian team.

Since 1997, overall championship victory had changed hands
only between Thailand and Indonesia.

Only a handful of records were broken at the games, in which
some 4,500 athletes participated. And the records were still well
below benchmarks set at the Asian Games, where China remains
unchallenged.

SEA Games basketball champion the Philippines, for example,
could hardly seriously challenge the Japanese and the South
Koreans, let alone China at the Asian Games.

Timings also fell short in the athletics and swimming
competitions.

Thailand's Supavadee broke an eight-year-old record in the
women's 200 meters race, but her time of 23.30 seconds is 1.29
seconds behind the Asian Games fastest time of 22.01 seconds set
by China's Li Xumei in the 1997 meet in Shanghai.

Old guards were still participating because there were no
younger athletes to take their place.

Editorial -- Page 4