Inquest starts for table-topping Thailand
Thailand confirmed their status as top dogs at the Southeast Asian
Games with their table-topping display — but an inquest has already
started into why they did not reach their pre-tournament target.
The Thais won 86 golds out of 372 — just three clear of Vietnam and
double third-placed Indonesia’s tally but they failed to hit 100 in a
slimmed-down programme of events in Laos’s capital Vientiane.
Singapore were kings of the pool at the 10-day biennial showpiece.
Thailand came out on top in athletics but suffered a shock loss in the
football tournament, crashing out in the group stage to eventual winners
Malaysia.
Two years ago, then-hosts Thailand dominated the medals standings
with 183 golds out of a total of 477 — well ahead of second-placed
Malaysia on 68 and Vietnam on 64 — taking their eighth consecutive gold
in the under-23 football.
Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, whose brief includes
sport, was upset by Thailand’s performance in the 25th SEA Games that
finished Friday, according to the Bangkok Post.
“I am disappointed by our performances in many sports, particularly
football,” he told the paper. “We will have to look into details to find
out why athletes in many sports performed badly.”
National Olympic Committee of Thailand president General Yuthasak
Sasiprapha said that there were many factors behind the nation’s failure
to meet their 100-gold target, blaming poor management in some sports.
“We have money and human resources to develop our athletes and we
should use them to the maximum effect,” he said, according to the Post.
Thailand, who won a total of 266 medals overall to Vietnam’s 215, did
not have enough information about their opponents and wrongly estimated
how many golds they would win, he said.
He added that the games contained many regional sports that Thailand
were not familiar with such as fin swimming and shuttlecock — a game in
which players aim to keep a weighted projectile in the air using their
feet and other parts of the body but not their hands or arms.
“The number of these sports must be reduced,” the Olympic chief said,
according to the report.
However, he said Thailand were still much better than their rivals in
internationally recognised sports.
Meanwhile ecstatic Malaysian football coach K. Rajagobal said his
team’s first title in the coveted SEA Games football competition for 20
years was just the start.
“It is hard to describe how I feel at the moment. The win is for
Malaysian football. It is for the people of Malaysia,” he said after his
team’s 1-0 win over Vietnam.
“But at the same time, I would remind everyone that this is just the
beginning. We have to be patient so that we will see a much better
national team in the future.”
Laos, hosting the SEA Games for the first time, beat their pre-games
target of 25 golds, ending up with 33 — the same number as Singapore. In
2007 they managed just five.
VIENTIANE, AFP |