Sports unites us

The 29th SEA Games held in KL, especially the athletic events, hold memorable moments for the writer

My fellow supporters singing Negaraku during the victory ceremony.

WE are not east Asians, we are not central Asians. Nor are we west Asians and south Asians. We are Southeast Asian. That was the spirit the Southeast Asian delegates attending the Asian Games 1958 in Tokyo wanted to inculcate after the meeting in which they had agreed to establish a sport organisation — the Southeast Asian Games Federation.

The following year, the region had its first games — the South East Asian Peninsula Games or SEAP Games, in Bangkok, Thailand, withfounding countries Burma (now Myanmar), Kampuchea (now Cambodia), Laos, Malaya (nowMalaysia), Thailand and Vietnam.

Then, in 1977, the federation changed the games’ nametothe SEA Games with the inclusion of Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Malaysia was the first country to host the first SEA Games.

Twenty-eight games later, Malaysia once again — after taking on the hosting task for five times — took on the responsible to host the 29th SEA Games from Aug 19-30. Rimau, the mascot of the KL 2017 29th SEA Games.

The first event of the 29th edition was the 42km marathon event, held at 6am on the main boulevard of Putrajaya.

Also happening on the same day was a fun run organised by the Malaysia Organising Committee KL 2017 which saw 15,000 runners gather for a run and subsequently, to cheer the marathoners during the SEA Games event.

Singaporean Guillaume Soh Rui Yong defended his SEA Games marathon title that he won in Singapore 2015.

Indonesian Agus Prayogo, who is a 10,000m and 5,000m specialist, made his SEA Games Marathon debut. Malaysian marathoners Muhaizar Mohamad and Leo Tan Houng Leong represented the country for the first time.

The favourites for the event were Soh Rui Yong, Agus Prayogo and Boonthung Srisung of Thailand. Soh Rui Yong and Boonthung were the gold and silver medallist respectively from the Singapore 2015 SEA Games.

The race started with Agus leading the front pack. At 30km, Boonthung dropped out of the race leaving Muhaizar and Leo Tan in the third and fourth position, who kept pace with each other from the 30km mark onwards. We got excited that a Malaysian was in contention to the podium.

Soh overtook Agus at the final 2km and finished in a time of 2:29:27 while Agus finished in 2:31:20. Muhaizar made the final push and came in third with the time of 2:31:52. Leo Tan completed in fourth position with a time of 2:32:11.

In the women’s marathon event, Filipina Mary Joy Tabal clocked 2:48:22 almost seven minutes clear of silver winner Vietnamese Hoang Thi Thanh. Mary Joy and Hoang were the silver and bronze medallist medallists of the Singapore 2015 SEA Games. Natthaya Thanaronnawat from Thailand, who was the defending champion, came in third. Mary Joy Tabal also delivered the first gold medal of the 29th SEA Games for Team Philippines.

CURTAIN RAISER

That evening, the 29th SEA Games was officially, and grandly, opened at the newly refurbished Bukit Jalil National Stadium.

The impressive opening ceremony was put together by the renowned Malaysian film director Saw Teong Hin, who directed

and Malaysia flag hoisted high during the victory ceremony.

There were LED lights in front of each seat at the second and upper tiers. These gave a spectacular display with the countries’ names flashed throughout the stadium during the parade of the nations and the athletes.

I also liked the self-penned 29th SEA Games theme titled by Sabahan Mia Palencia. Her live performance was as good as her recording.

Dayang Nurfaizah and MonoloQue also performed original numbersspecially written for the occasion.

Then, when Datuk Soh Chin Aun, Datuk Santokh Singh and Datuk JamesWong, the three football players from the team that qualified Malaysia for the 1980 Olympics, marched into the arena, I got goosebumps.

BLUE RIBBON

Athletics is the blue ribbon event of any