With the sword, the clubs, the globes, the rackets, atop thoroughbreds or mountain bikes, the Malaysian athletes turned in golden moments they shared with the cheering hometown crowd, frolicking for 10 days to gain overall excellence in this biennial meet for the first time ever.
Up to the final day of competition yesterday, the Malaysians scored against the oppositions, winning two more golds to finish with a total of 111 out of the 376 disputed in the games. The Malaysians captured the gold in men’s and women’s 10m platform synchronized diving.
That marked a dramatic improvement by the hosts from the last SEA Games in Brunei in 1999 where they cornered only 57 golds and finished second behind Thailand which had 64 out of the 233 contested.
This time, the Thais, overall champions in nine previous stagings of the Games, settled for second place with 103 golds, 86 silvers and 89 bronzes. The Malaysians also had 75 silvers and 85 bronzes.
Indonesia, the most dominant nation in this conclave in the 80s to the early 90s but its sports program scuttled by financial and political crises at home, stayed at third place with a gold-silver-bronze haul of 72-74-80.
Then came Vietnam, which showed readiness for an expected show of might in its own turf in 2003. It figured prominently in practically all events and beat the Philippines for fourth place with 33-35-64.
Though it had more golds — 35 – won in Jakarta in 1997, this is the first time that it outperformed the Philippines. The Vietnamese matched their fourth-place finish in 1961 in Yangon when only six nations — minus the Philippines – competed in 13 sports in the Games, then known as the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP).
The Philippines matched its fifth-place finish in Brunei with 30-66-67 while Singapore dropped from fourth to sixth with 22-31-42. Myanmar also showed marked improvement with a harvest of 19 golds, 14 silvers and 53 bronzes.
Malaysian delegation chef de mission Datuk Mazlan Ahmad, in an interview with the New Straits Times, said Malaysia’s success in emerging as the SEA Games champions for the first time ever is beyond expectation.
He said they expected the Malaysian athletes to surpass their 80-gold target but to have scooped up 108 golds and clinched the overall title on the penultimate day of competition was something unexpected.
"I am very proud of our achievement. As hosts, our athletes were under pressure to become champions...but we have finally proven ourselves," he said.
Mazlan, who is National Sports Council (NSC) director-general, said the Malaysian contingent’s success was the result of continuous efforts made by the NSC and local national sports associations. He said it started with the "Projek Jaya ’98" which was tailored for the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and then the Program Gemilang 2001 which was aimed at excellence in this SEA Games.