| |
Philippine power Singapore wins men's, women's table tennis
Posted: Sunday August 15, 1999 03:12 PM
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) -- The Southeast Asian Games ended Sunday with a display of Philippine power in basketball and complaints that Singapore's table tennis team had unfair help from Chinese immigrants. The Filipinos beat Thailand 89-69 for the basketball gold medal. Singapore won the table tennis men's and women's singles, and said its players truly belonged to Singapore because that was where they were trained. Malaysia, which had won the games' first gold in a cycling race, won the last, in men's team squash. But its three golds for the day left it well behind Thailand in the final standings for eight days of competition among some 2,400 athletes from 10 nations. Thailand, with a final gold Sunday in tenpin bowling, finished with 65 golds to 57 for Malaysia and 44 for Indonesia. Singapore had 23, the Philippines 19, Vietnam 17, host Brunei four, Myanmar three and Laos one. Cambodia did not win a single medal. In basketball, the Thais managed to cut the Filipinos' lead from 49-30 at halftime to 65-55 midway through the second half, but then floundered through a series of desperate long shots and reckless fast breaks. Ernesto Billones scored 22 points, including a dunk that gave the Filipinos their biggest lead, 84-62 with 3:25 left. Indonesia beat Malaysia 71-48 for the bronze medal. The Philippines also won gold Sunday in billiards, with Lee Vann Corteza beating compatriot Leonardo Andam 15-12 in the 9-ball pool final. China-born Duan Yong Jun won the men's table tennis singles gold for Singapore by beating Indonesia's Anton Suseno, the 1991 and 1993 SEA Games champion, 16-21, 21-14, 21-15, 21-12. Yong's compatriot Li Jia Wei breezed past Thailand's Nanthana Komwong 21-14, 21-17, 21-11 for the women's gold. The tiny island republic swept six out of seven table tennis golds at these games. But Anton declared, "I lost to China," and Johnny Waworuntu, secretary-general of the Indonesian Table Tennis Association, said Duan had been given Singapore citizenship less than two months ago. Tan Kwee Hoe, manager of the Singaporean team, said Duan has lived in Singapore for more than three years. Many of the team's Chinese-born players "came to Singapore years ago to study," Tan said. "We're the ones who trained them. They are our investments." Malaysia's victories in the men's and women's squash team finals Sunday had been considered a foregone conclusion, and Malaysia's Shalin Zulkifli won the tenpin bowling women's grand master's gold medal to go with her gold in all-events. Shalin beat Singapore's Sarah Yap 409-312 in the two-game gold medal match. Hoh Yen Wah lost to Shalin 245-213 earlier and settled for the bronze. In squash, the Malaysian team led by world junior champion Nicol David lost only one set on its way to a 3-0 victory over Singapore in the women's team gold medal match. The men won 3-0 against Singapore without losing a set. Thailand won its final gold in tenpin bowling, where all-events silver medalist Kritchawat Jumpakhao beat Singapore's Goh Heng Soon 460-445 in the two-game deciding match. Singaporean Foo Chee Leong was left with the bronze after Goh beat him 212-202. Top individual gold winners of the games were swimmers Joscelin Yeo of Singapore, who won six, all in games record times, and 16-year-old Pilin Tachakittiran of Thailand, who had three golds in individual races and three in relays. She beat Yeo in the 400-meter freestyle. A total of 30 games records fell in swimming and track and field. Filipino golfer Gerald Rosales shot a course record 8-under-par 64 on his way to a 15-under 273 total and victory by six strokes. These games marked a big slip for Indonesia, which won 194 golds to 83 for Thailand in the 1997 SEA Games in Jakarta but since has been among the hardest hit by Asia's economic crisis. It also lost medal chances in some areas when these games were streamlined to 21 sports from 34 in 1997. Brunei, acting as host for the first time, had its best games performance ever. Its four golds here exceeded the total of three it held from all previous SEA Games. Many of the sports were staged in the new Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex, named for Brunei's sultan. Within an easy walk, spectators, who were admitted free of charge, could see track and field, swimming, soccer, billiards, tennis, lawn bowls, squash, field hockey, badminton and the Malay martial art of pencak silat. One embarrassment came three days before the games opened when roof tiles fell from an unoccupied part of the International Conference Center, next to the building housing the games' main press center. When more fell several days later, workers took down all 150,000 tiles from the center's roof as a precaution.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
