Thailand set to identify weaknesses over KL2017 SEA Games

BANGKOK: Days after the 29th Kuala Lumpur SEA Games ended, Thailand’s sports officials began identifying weaknesses which contributed to the surrendering of regional supremacy in the biennial games to Malaysia.

Its sports officials including chef- de- mission to the games, Thana Chaiprasit and Olympic Committee of Thailand ( OCT) secretary general Charouck Arirachakaran were calling for reform, revamp and reshuff le among sports associations to arrest further decline.

“We have to seriously review our performance and find ways for a reform to reclaim our supremacy ( at the SEA Games). Normally when we return home from an international event, we would have discussions.”

“This time, I’d like the Sports Authority of Thailand ( SAT) and OCT to talk to each sporting associat ion. I f we don’ t do anything, we could face further decline,” Thana was quoted by the local media recently on Thailand’s failure to defend its regional overall title in Kuala Lumpur.

Host Malaysia which surpassed their own target of 111 gold medals with a collection of 145 gold medals, deposed former champions Thailand which could only manage second place with 72 gold medals, 48 short from their 120 gold target. They won in Singapore two years ago with 95 gold medals.

Despite blaming lacklustre performance from Thai athletes, he also took a dig at the wayward officiating during the games. Thailand was once the powerhouse in athletics and swimming, but during the just- ended games had only managed to win nine gold medals in athletics and three in swimming. Other sports which came up short were gymnastics, bowling, archery and fencing which failed to win any medal.

Me a nwh il e , the Thai government will hand over 124 million Baht ( RM15.5 million) to 72 gold, 86 silver and 88 bronze medal winners. A gold medallist will get 200,000 Baht ( RM25,000), silver 100,000 Baht ( RM12,500) and bronze 50,000 Baht (RM6,250), according to the local media.

Their gold- medal winning football team is expected to receive the biggest chunk with 16 million Baht ( RM2 million). — Bernama