How the Southeast Asian Games started
Credit to Author: EDDIE G. ALINEA| Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2019 16:23:08 +0000
(Part 1)
The 2019 budget had been signed. The mid-term elections over. Preparations for the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting November 30 to December 11 this year should’ve turned fever pitch at this time, a little over five months from now.
But no, instead of that happening, politics still prevails among warring camps within then Philippine Olympic Committee on whose soldiers, preparations and actual competitions, etc lie.
Why, only two weeks ago POC President Ricky Vargas, who, along with his allies assumed helm two years ago, altered the composition of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) on suspicion that the former body was sabotaging what his group had started in their efforts to institute reforms within the entire leadership.
Meanwhile, everything look to have been at a standstill, including the most important training of athletes, who are to carry the country’s colors in their efforts to recapture the glory of the Filipinos’ 2005 campaign when they scooped up the overall championship for the first time since joining the SEA Games Federation in 1977, along with Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam.
That was when the former five-nation Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP) made up of Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam was expanded to what is now an 11-country conclave.
For more than four decades since then, the SEA Games has witnessed the glitter and and honor of the medals won and records established by the best and the finest athletes in the region. It has put forth an example of what Southeast Asia has to offer to the rest of the sporting world.
Most importantly, it has successfully brought unity and solidarity among its member countries.
The First SEAP Games was held in Thailand from December 12-to 17 in 1959. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, himself an Olympian, opened the meet. Over 5,650 athletes and officials took part in the events held at the National Stadium in Bangkok. Host Thais were joined by the Malaysians, Burmese, Laos, Singaporeans and Vietnamese.
The hosts bagged 35 of the 62 gold medals at stake in athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cycling. football, lawn tennis, shooting, table tennis, swimming, volleyball and weightlifting.
Two years later in Burma, 800 participants showed up from December 11-16 for the second edition of the biennial meet at the Arengsan Memorial Stadium where host Burmese emerged on top by keeping in its shore 35 of 79 gold medals contested .
Malaysia took the honor of staging the 1965 Games after Laos begged off due to financial constraints. There were no Games held in 1963. The Kuala Lumpur Games were held from December 14-21 with some 1,300 athletes and officials taking part. It was the start of a continuous biennial celebration of the regional sporting event with Thailand, again, finishing No. 1 with 38 of 136 gold disputed.
Thailand hosted the Games for the second time in 1967, repeating as overall champion with a 77 gold strike. Burma, likewise,repeated as host in 1969 and duplicated, too, its 1961 hosting as overall champ with a 57 gold medal harvest.
The Thais reigned supreme anew in 1971 in Malaysia, in 1973 in Singapore and 1975, again in its home turf, until it met its match in newcomer Indonesia, which was to challenge the them for supremacy since its acceptance in the SEAG Federation fold in 1977.
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