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SEA Games kick off with 4,000 athletes
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- More than 4,000 Southeast Asian athletes set out Saturday to decide their fastest, strongest and most skillful in 32 sports, including five kinds of martial arts, three forms of bowling and an acrobatic local form of volleyball. If boxing and fencing are counted, nearly 870 competitors will be judged on how well they fight, or pretend to fight, in the 10-nation Southeast Asian Games. In some divisions of martial arts, solo athletes are judged on how well they perform set maneuvers. Among the 391 gold medals at stake, the inclusion of so many decided by judges has led to worries about fairness. Thai delegation leader Maj. Gen. Charouk Arirachakaran was quoted by Malaysia's national news agency Bernama as expressing concern about gymnastics and diving as well as the martial arts. "You are talking about more than 90 medals that are at stake in subjective sports," he said. Southeast Asia has world class athletes in some sports, such as badminton and boxing. Overall, however, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad expressed hope that these games would lead to Southeast Asian athletes standing taller in world sports by bringing members of the region's sporting community together to help each other. "Regional cooperation should not be confined only to politics and economics. It is equally relevant in the field of sports," Bernama quoted him as saying. The 10-day games' sports range from the arduousness of marathon to the easy lifting of billiards; from events that require expensive horses, boats or golf clubs to those that need only a gym suit or boxing trunks; from the widespread such as soccer to the strictly regional such as sepak takraw, a volleyball-like sport in which a rattan ball is kicked over the net. The martial arts are judo and karate, from Japan; taekwondo, from Korea; wushu, from China, and pencak silat, from Southeast Asia. In all, 82 gold medals are at stake in these. For bowling, there is a choice of tenpin, lawn bowls or petanque, in which steel balls are thrown at a target ball, with a total of 24 golds to be decided. The biggest number of golds, 46, will be decided in track and field, and 43 are at stake in swimming. Two gold medals -- in shooting and equestrian events -- were to be decided even before Malaysia's king, Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, formally opens the games Saturday night in ceremonies featuring 1,400 dancers in a combination of gymnastics, aerobics and expressive dance. Preliminary soccer matches began last Saturday, and Myanmar and Thailand already have qualified for the women's semifinals. Myanmar also clinched a men's semifinal berth by beating Singapore 2-1 Friday, despite being reduced to 10 men toward the end of the game. Myanmar last reached the men's semifinals in 1995. Swimming starts Sunday and track and field next Tuesday. Some 1,500 members of the media had been expected to cover the games, but by Friday the number had risen to more than 3,000, and officials were urging patience among late arrivals as they rushed to provide accreditation. On Friday night, Malaysian Sports Minister Hishammuddin Hussein attended prayers for the success of the SEA Games and well-being of all athletes at a mosque near one of the games' main stadiums. Thailand was the biggest winner at the last games in Brunei in 1999, with 169 medals including 65 of the total 233 gold on offer. Malaysia had 144, including 57 gold, and Indonesia won 145, 44 of them gold.
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