Myanmar and Vietnam won two gold medals each at the Southeast Asian Games, as eight finals were decided before the formal opening of the event later yesterday.
Ya Min K-Khine, a 16-year-old from Myanmar, won individual gold in women’s taekwondo, while the country’s sepak takraw women’s team also won a gold. Myanmar also won two silvers and a bronze for a total of five medals to top the table.
Vietnam won two gold medals in taekwondo yesterday, one for men’s team and one for mixed pair.
Thailand, Laos, Philippines and Singapore have bagged one gold each so far.
The Games formally opened yesterday with a cultural extravaganza including dances and songs glorifying the traditions of the landlocked country of 6.8 million people.
LOCAL FLAVOR
The Southeast Asian Games has taken on more of a Southeast Asian flavor over the years, boosting the amount of sports peculiar to the region and popular with fans while downgrading traditional sports in which its nations are less globally competitive.
This year’s event has done away with cycling, basketball, gymnastics, hockey, rowing and weightlifting, while including or retaining dragon boat racing, wushu, Muay Thai, sepak takraw, pencak silat and go.
Athletics will have the biggest number of participants with 288, followed by soccer with 280 players. A total of 4,869 athletes will be vying for the 370 gold, 370 silver and 539 bronze medals on offer.
Taiwan is not competing in the Southeast Asian Games.
SINGAPORE PULLS OUT
Meanwhile, Games chiefs are searching for a new venue for the 2013 edition after Singapore said it would pull out of hosting the event, a report said.
Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported that Chris Chan, the country’s National Olympic Council’s secretary-general, on Monday told members of the SEA Games federation council Singapore would withdraw its rights to host the event.
The confirmation came at a meeting of the SEA Games executive committee on Tuesday.
According to the report, the Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam have expressed an interest in hosting the 2013 Games, but a decision will not be made until next year, probably in April, when the council meets again.
Singapore’s decision to pull out of hosting the biennial event follows repeated delays to a S$1.87 billion (US$1.34 billion) Sports Hub, originally scheduled to be completed next year, the report said.
The facility, including a 55,000-seater National Stadium with a retractable roof, would have staged major sports such as swimming, athletics and soccer.
Reports said the project’s delays were because of high construction costs and the global economic downturn.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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