Blazing a golden trail in the SEA Games
The Borneo Post traces Sarawak’s gold medallists in the past 50 years
KUCHING: The 28th Southeast Asian Games wil l be held in Singapore from June 5-16. The regional multi- sport event has taken place every two years since 1959 except for 1961.
Seven Sarawak athletes – three sprinters and four throwers – are in the 39 - strong Malaysian track and field contingent in Singapore. They are the latest to join the select group of Sarawak athletes who have competed in the SEA Games for half a century.
Bala Ditta was Sarawak’s first Olympian in 1964 while Pandelela Rinong was Sarawak’s first ever Olympic medalist in 2012.
But who was Sarawak’s first SEA Games gold medalist?
Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Malaya (then Malaysia) participated in the original SEAP ( Southeast Asia Peninsula) Games from 1959 to 1975.
The Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei were included for the renamed SEA Games from 1977 while Timor-Liste joined in 2003.
Sarawak athletes started competing from the 1965 SEAP Games.
On the first day of competition at the Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 15, a virtual unknown surprised spectators to win the women’s 80m hurdles in a new record of 11.9sec.
Kuching-born Kueh Swee Hong had won Sarawak’s historic first gold medal in the SEA Games.
On the next day, fel low Sarawakian Chong Mei Ling took the bronze in the 800m with a time of 2min 23.4sec.
Female athletes overshadowed their male counterparts during the early years of Sarawak’s participation.
At the 1967 Games in Bangkok, another three girls from Sarawak won medals.
Two bronzes were won by Vivien Ee who threw 120’3” in the javelin and Lee Nyuk Moi who clocked 62.5sec in the 400m.
14 year- old Chai Ng Mei lost to Burma’s Barbara Kyaw Bwa on a count-back in the high jump after both cleared the same height of 4’10.”
It is somewhat ironic that two of Sarawak’s most illustrious sporting heroes have never struck gold in the SEA Games.
Bala Ditta, who established the yet unbroken state 110m hurdles record of 14.6sec in 1962, was already 27 when he competed in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Until he finally retired in 1976, he spent the intervening years in semi-retirement and made several comebacks for major events.
He won the silver in the 1971 and 1973 SEA Games, remarkably clocking 14.7sec on both occasions when he was already 34 and 36!
Watson Nyambek’s national 100m record of 10.30sec has stood since 1998.
In that year, the two- time Olympian was second at the Asian Track & Field Championships and fourth at the Asian Games.
But he only managed to win the bronze in the 1997 SEA Games finishing in 10.53sec behind two Thais.
He did better by anchoring the Malaysian 4x100m relay team to second place at the 2001 Games in 39.83sec which is still the national record.
To date Sarawak athletes have won 20 SEA Games gold medals in athletics.
14 of those were actually won by three athletes.
Chai Ng Mei left to train in West Germany in 1971 and eventually settled there.
She returned as Gladys Chai to score a double in the high jump and pentathlon at both the 1973 and 1975 Games.
Her fifth gold was in the high jump in 1979.
Her winning height of 1.74m in the 1973 Games stood as the national record for 17 years and remains Sarawak’s state record to this day.
The unbeatable Ballang Lasung, the pride of Limbang, won the javelin in four consecutive SEA Games: 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983.
Equally impressive was hammer thrower Wong Tee Kue who competed in all eight SEA Games from 1989 to 2003.
The first in the remarkably long line of national throwers from Sarikei won five times in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2001.
Miri- born ace Lee Chiew Ha won the women’s shot put title in 1989 and 1991. Her best distance of 14.40m is still the national record after 26 years.
Most recently, Mohd Jironi also won two gold medals at the 2013 Games in Myanmar in the 800m (1min 50.98sec) and 1,500m (3min 58.02sec).
We leave Sibu- born Lau Kiew Ee’s story last in this trip down memory lane as it was by far the most dramatic and memorable.
Sarawak TV viewers were introduced to live telecasts of major sporting events starting from the world heavyweight boxing title bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Bugner held in Kuala Lumpur on 1 July 1975.
The 1977 Games held in Kuala Lumpur became the first SEA Games to be televised live for Sarawak fans.
It was 2.30pm on Wednesday, 23 November 1977.
Six finalists lined up on the black bitumen track of the Merdeka Stadium for the women’s 400m hurdles.
The odds- on favourite was Malaysia’s darling Marina Chin.
She had already won the 100m hurdles two days earlier and the 200m hurdles the day before.
True to form, Marina led right from the start to quickly establish her superiority.
With 50m left, she was clearly coasting to her third gold medal.
But one leg clipped the last hurdle and she was sent sprawling to the ground. She gamely picked herself up.
Herleadhadbeensocommanding that she still finished second.
Only one athlete managed to go past her - compatriot Lau Kiew Ee – who finished in 64.16sec to ensure that the gold medal still belonged to Malaysia.