Vietnam wins slew of golds to take charge of SEA Games

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Hanoi

Host athletes put in a high-flying performance and romped home with a barrage of gold medals on Saturday as the Vietnamese began to be optimistic about the prospects of taking the championships in their inaugural hosting of the Southeast Asian Games.

Vietnamese karatekas led the golds with a clean sweep of six in action that was marred by a boycott from the Indonesian team during the men's kumite team match.

Indonesia refused to continue, citing partiality in the refereeing. Indonesia team manager Ahmad Boedoe told The Jakarta Post that the assessment had always gone dubiously against his athletes, Hassan Basri and Jan Piter Napitupulu, in the preceding two matches.

The karate competition might have been prone to subjectivity, but the home shooters proved completely that their skills counted in the shootouts, as the Vietnamese took five of the six golds on offer.

Having the Games on its soil for the first time, Vietnam ran amok, grabbing 22 on Saturday for an overall 23 gold medals, to jump to the top in the provisional standings.

Defending champion Malaysia was a distant second with 7 golds, equal with Singapore, which was beaten in the silver department.

Following the successful day, talk on the streets has already turned hopeful and optimistic about the mini-Olympics.

"I'm very hopeful Vietnam can come out as top medal winner in the SEA Games," said Pham Le Thuy, a 22-year-old college student.

Vietnamese are in full swing supporting their athletes. A motorcycle parade of young riders waving flags and yelling their support has been a regular occurrence on the streets till gone midnight. Local media have already dubbed the city "sleepless city."

While Vietnam looks ecstatic about its high-flying performance in the early stages of the championship, Indonesia, which used to dominate the biennial sporting event, ended up in Saturday's program with a discouraging result.

Opening the day with a double victory in the rowing and cycling, the Red and White contingent then seemed to come to a halt with no additional golds in the action that followed, to drop to fifth place behind Thailand.