Myanmar weathers storm in search for a gold glut
Criticism dampens celebrations Best of the Rest
HANOI, Feb 28, (RTRS): Mention the words “kempo”, “vovinam” or “chinlone” and expect an angry response from Southeast Asia’s seething sports bosses — if they can remember what they are.
The obscure terms are indigenous sports disciplines and for the few countries that play them, they will offer an unusual amount of medals at this year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, at the expense of gymnasts, tennis and beach volleyball players bitter their sports were ditched by hosts Myanmar.
Like Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics in 2008, Myanmar is billing the December Games as its coming out party after 49 years of military rule, but dampening celebrations is fierce criticism from competitors who accuse the hosts of cherry-picking sports it plays best.
Meetings of the 11 competing countries have been fraught with arguments, according to some who attended, with deep suspicions that Myanmar has struck deals with certain states and sought to weaken the hand of stronger nations to boost its normally mediocre standing in the medals table.
The 33-sport programme, which still has yet to be finalised, features most Olympic favourites like athletics, boxing and swimming, but up to a third of the medals are allotted to martial arts-related events.
Some countries have said the politicking and gamesmanship is making a mockery of Myanmar’s first SEA Games since 1969.
“It’s ridiculous...whatever sports they want in, they get and the ones they’ve chosen carry too many medals,” said Charoen Wattanasin of Thailand’s Olympic Committee.
“This sort of thing shouldn’t happen. The charm of the SEA Games has diminished significantly in recent years. The atmosphere used to be cordial, it was like a family.”
Sports officials in the Philippines are even more furious and some have made dramatic, but apparently hollow, threats of a boycott. Others said they may instead send a weakened team in protest. Norway wins 4x5K relay: Marit Bjoergen anchored Norway to its second straight 4x5-kilometer crosscountry relay world title Thursday.
Bjoergen, Kristin Stoermer Steira, Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng won in 1 hour, 36.5 seconds, beating the Swedish team of Ida Ingemarsdotter, Emma Wiken, Anna Haag and Charlotte Kalla by 26.2 seconds.
Bjoergen, who has now won 11 world titles in her career, even had time to grab a Norway flag from the crowd as she skied down the final straight.
Olympic champion Norway was the favorite going into the race. The quartet had already picked up six individual medals and took the top four places in Saturday’s skiathlon.
“We weren’t sure of making it, it wasn’t easy out there,” Bjoergen said. “All four of us had to work very hard and focus, and our skis had to be perfect. We knew we had to fight the whole time.” A fast final leg from Yulia Tchekaleva - who won bronze in Tuesday’s individual 10K - enabled Russia to finish third, 45.8 seconds behind Norway. It was also the fastest leg of the race.
Team sprint winner Jessica Diggins also raced a quick final leg for the United States to finish fourth. Finland had tussled with Sweden for second for most of the race, but crossed the line in fifth. (AP) Man City team player jailed: A Manchester City youth team player has been sentenced to 16 months in jail for killing a brother and sister in a car accident while driving his Mercedes at nearly twice the speed limit.
Courtney Meppen-Walter, an 18year-old defender who has captained England’s under-18 team, hit a car as it emerged from a side street in Manchester. He was driving 56 mph in a 30 mph zone.
The victims, Kulwant Singh and Ravel Kaur, arrived in Britain in 2001 after fleeing persecution by the Taliban.
Meppen-Walter wept Thursday as he was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court. He will serve eight months, but may be released earlier on an electronic tag, and was banned from driving for three years.
Meppen-Walter twice was an unused substitute for City in Champions League matches. (AP) Edu signs for China’s Liaoning: Schalke’s Brazilian midfielder Edu on Thursday agreed to move to Chinese club Liaoning Whowin with immediate effect, the German outfit announced.
“This was in response to a desire expressed by Edu that he wanted a change,” said Schalke sporting director Horst Held.
Edu, 31, signed for Schalke in January 2010 having played in South Korea with Suwon Bluewings.
He was a German Cup winner in 2011 and also scored twice in the 5-2 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League quarter-finals. (AFP)
“We believe that there will be 60 medals in these indigenous sports and we’ll get a big fat zero in the medal tally, because we’re not taking part in any of those,” said a Philippine Olympic Committee member, who declined to be named.
“Why should we send a large delegation and spend a lot of money when we are clearly in a disadvantaged position?” Acrimonious contest Rivalry is extremely fierce at the biennial Games watched by tens of millions of people. The contest almost always ends in acrimony, with walkouts, protests and allegations of match-fixing, and biased refereeing and blatant cheating commonplace.
The outcry about the little-known sports is because they’re only really played by Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Vovinam is a Vietnamese martial art that includes armed and unarmed categories and kempo is a derivative of kungfu popular in Laos and Cambodia — countries that pose little threat to Myanmar’s quest for a top-three finish in the medals chart.
Chinlone has drawn anger since it is only played competitively in Myanmar. It’s included under the regional sport of sepak takraw — essentially volleyball using feet — but is quite different, closer to what soccer players call “keepie-up”, with no net and points awarded for technique.
But Myanmar is no stranger to criticism having endured decades of international ostracism while ruled from 19622011 by generals who rarely caved in to foreign pressure.
Like then, Myanmar says it can, and will, do as it pleases.
“We’re just following the SEA Games Charter so there isn’t any serious problem,” said Thet Lwin, a top sports ministry official.
Myanmar has made some compromises to cool tempers and last month reinstated badminton and table tennis and some events in athletics and aquatics, to appease Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, which have since taken a more conciliatory tone.
“The host country has it right to pick which sports to play, depending on their capability. There’s also politicking to it which is normal,” Indonesia’s Minister for Youth and Sports, Roy Suryo, told Reuters.
The Games will take place in three cities, Yangon, Mandalay and in the new capital Naypyitaw, a vast, sparsely populated city with grandiose buildings. Most venues are newly built, with substantial help from allies like China and Japan.
Chris Chan, secretary general of Singapore’s Olympic Council, praised Myanmar for smooth preparations he said were “way ahead” of previous hosts.
Cambodian counterpart Vath Chamroeun called on competing nations to end the dispute and said talk of boycotts would be “undignified”, comments echoed by the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s secretary general.
The second set offered only a little more comfort.
“I’m pleased that it was an even better performance than in my first two matches and that I’m elevating my level. Hopefully I can sustain that,” he said of Friday’s semi-final with Juan Martin Del Potro, the former US Open champion, who beat Daniel Brands, a German qualifier, by 6-4, 6-2.
It was a big-serving battle of the two tallest men in the tournament, and for a while, until 4-4 in the first set it seemed that Brands might be capable of creating further upsets in the Gulf.
He beat two leading Frenchmen, Gael Monfils and Jeremy Chardy, while reaching the semi-finals in Doha last month, but once Del Potro broke serve to snatch the first set, his chances of a third notable success evaporated.
Afterwards Del Potro revealed some of the obstacles to returning to his former prominence in a career which was damaged by a wrist injury which sidelined him for most of 2010.
Federer will tackle Tomas Berdych, the world number six from the Czech Republic who has continued to cope well with a schedule requiring him to travel