Asia Times: SEA Games golden goal proves elusive



	September 09, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

SEA Games golden goal proves elusive
By Nazri Hadi Saparin

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - When the curtain fell on the biggest sporting extravaganza in Southeast Asia last month, it wasn't the region's athletes, but rather the lack of athletes of stature which stood out.

When the SEA Games, then known as the Southeast Asia and Peninsular (SEAP) Games were first held in 1959, the idea was for the games to serve as a springboard for producing world champions. Now, 40 years down the road, the quest for global supremacy for many Southeast Asian athletes remains elusive.

Except for the likes of Indonesians Susi Susanti and Rashid Sidek in badminton, Tamarine Tanasugarn in tennis, the Malaysian hockey team and bowlers and Thailand's lightweight boxers, Southeast Asia hasn't been able to achieve what it set out to do almost five decades ago. The failure of countries to produce world-class sportsmen and women in the ''glamor sports'' of athletics and swimming is striking.

In the recently concluded 20th SEA Games in oil-rich Brunei, the scenario could scarcely have been any gloomier, though few voices of discomfiture with the state of regional sports were heard. Only Malaysia has made calls publicly for a radical change to the SEA Games. These calls were made only after the completion of the games, amid accusations that countries are more worried about winning medals - evident from the foreign talent recruitment policies of some nations - than developing local talents.

Though 32 Southeast Asian records fell during the games, these achievements failed to put a dent in any of the records set at the Asian Games - which include nations like China and Japan. In swimming, the only two Asian Games record holders deemed to have the potential to challenge the elite of pool, Thailand's Ratapong Srisanont and Malaysia's Alex Lim, failed to improve their own records.

The region can be proud of Singaporean swimmer Joscelin Yeo, who set six Games records. Her consistency over the past five Games has been noted and observers say that if any Southeast Asian athlete were primed to become a world champion - or at least come close - it will be Joscelin. The 20-year-old US-based swimmer's effort of 1 minute 44 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly event made her the world's 16th best. ''Joscelin showed over the years and in Brunei that she has the potential to reach greater heights,'' said David Lim, head coach of the Singapore swimming team to Brunei. ''The SEA Games is definitely not her limit. Her swimming is of Asian standard, and since she's young, who knows what she can still achieve.''

The inferiority of the Games was particularly apparent in athletics. Nunung Jayadi of Indonesia took the SEA Games record in pole vault past the five-meter barrier with a 5.05-meter effort, but that is far off from the six-year-old Asian benchmark of 5.9 meters and the Ukraine's Sergey Bubka's world record of 6.14 metres.

Standards fall further when countries take the short cut to success by recruiting foreign talent in their bid for gold. ''But what is a SEA Games gold medal compared to grooming your own athlete and nurturing them into world champions?'' said Malaysian Chief-de-Mission to the Games, Sieh Kok Chi. ''I wouldn't want to comment on some countries' policy of recruiting foreign talent, but it defeats the purpose of the SEA Games being held in the first place. The Games was intended not just for winning medals but the bigger mission and objective was for it to be an avenue to groom and nurture the region's best to become world's best.''

Almost all members of Singapore's table tennis team consisted of China-born players. The team won six of the seven gold medals at stake in the sport at the 20th SEA Games.

Singapore Table Tennis Association's deputy-president Chuang Shaw Peng defended the policy: ''I realize that other nations are not happy with us. But, they must understand that we actually bring in these players when they're still young. I believe our victories at the SEA Games will kickstart the sport and attarct more [local] people to it.''

Other SEA Games participants, like Thailand's coach Tang Gaoling, were not very convinced and criticized Singapore's win-at-all-cost policy. ''I'm all for having Chinese players in competition to raise the level of play,'' Tang said, ''but when Singapore uses so many Chinese players, it might discourage the smaller nations from taking part because they know they will have no chance.''

Now that the last SEA Games of the millennium is concluded, some countries want its priorities reviewed. ''The objective of the SEA Games was to provide a basic foundation for Southeast Asian athletes to improve their performance at world level,'' said Malaysian National Sports Council Director-General Mazlan Ahmad.

As host of the 2001 SEA Games, Malaysia wants to streamline the Games program to focus more on sports which are popular in the region and those where standards are high. Officials say sports events in which the standards are low or in which participating nations depend on imported players to raise the standards, could be struck from the 2001 program.

(Inter Press Serivce)

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