Malaysia revels in SEA Games triumph
Malaysia revels in SEA Games triumph
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
More stories on Page 6