Top official insists reforms needed to arrest ‘further decline’
A top Thai official has called on the country’s sports agencies to push for a reform following their athletes’ dismal results at the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur which ended yesterday.
Thailand ended their SEA Games campaign with two more gold medals from weightlifting and short track speed skating on the final day.
Lifter Pornchai Lobsi broke the Games record in the men’s 85kg event, while speed skater Triphop Thongngam completed his golden double with the men’s 1,000m title.
Pornchai set the new record with a combined effort of 337kg total (146kg in snatch and 191kg in clean and jerk). Fazrul Azrie of Malaysia (323kg, 141+182) took silver and Hoang Tan Tai (322kg, 145+177) of Vietnam got bronze.
Triphop followed up on his 500m win on Wednesday with his success in the men’s 1,000m race yesterday. Lucas Ng Jun Jie of Singapore took silver and home hope Hazim Shahrum got bronze.
In all, the Thais took home 72 gold medals to finish second in the medal standings, well behind Malaysia who won 145 titles.
Vietnam were third with 58 golds, one more than Singapore’s tally.
The Kingdom claimed the overall crown at the 2015 Games with 95 golds.
“A big homework awaits concerned agencies such as the Sports Authority of Thailand [SAT] and the National Olympic Committee of Thailand,” said Thana Chaiprasit, chief of the Thai delegation.
“We have to seriously review our performances and find ways for a reform to reclaim our supremacy [at the SEA Games]. Normally, when we return home from an international event, we have discussions. This time, I’d like the SAT and the Olympic committee to talk to each sporting association. If we don’t do anything, we could face a further decline.”
While Thailand were unsuccessful in several sports because of their own athletes’ poor performances, the country failed to win golds in certain events because of wayward officiating, Thana said.
Earlier, Indonesian officials also hit out at the judging standards, and there have been a welter of complaints and videos online, many under the #ShameOnYouMalaysia hashtag.
But Malaysia yesterday dismissed concerns over judging as the hosts finished the competition with 145 gold medals, a record haul for the country, more than twice the number won by second-placed Thailand.
The home team won five of the seven gold medals on the final day, a typically dominant performance as they ended the Games with more than one-third of the 406 titles handed out.
Malaysia, who won 62 gold medals at the last SEA Games in 2015, topped the table for the first time since 2001 — when they also hosted the mini-Olympics and claimed 111 golds.
Ahmad Shapawi Ismail, director-general of Malaysia’s National Sports Council, said none of the 10 visiting teams had registered any official complaints.
He told reporters yesterday: “We have procedures on whatever protests or
dissatisfaction [there is] from the teams and until now if I’m not mistaken we haven’t received any official complaints.”
He added: “The bottom line is, there are rules, there are procedures. There is a technical delegate appointed by the international sports federation, and we have to trust those people to run the competition properly.”
Earlier, Thana said it would be useless to file a formal complaint as “the hosts only want to become the overall champions.”
Malaysia have never won an Olympic gold medal, although they had four silvers and a bronze at last year’s Rio Games.
Newspapers trumpeted Malaysia’s victory, and were thick with full-page ads taken out by companies to congratulate the team. Malaysia celebrates its 60th independence anniversary today.
The Philippines will host the next Games in 2019.