2007 Southeast Asian Games

24th Southeast Asian Games
Motto Spirit, Friendship and Celebrations
Nations participating 11[1]
Athletes participating 5282
Events 475 in 43 sports
Opening ceremony 6 December 2007
Closing ceremony 15 December 2007
Officially opened by Maha Vajiralongkorn
Crown prince of Thailand
Athlete's Oath Suebsak Pansueb
Judge's Oath Paibul Srichaisawat
Torch lighter Udomporn Polsak
Ceremony venue 80th Birthday Stadium
Website 2007 Southeast Asian Games
<  2005 2009  >

The 2007 Southeast Asian Games (Thai: ซีเกมส์ 2007), officially known as the 24th Southeast Asian Games was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat), Thailand from 6 to 15 December 2007, with 475 in 43 sports and disciplines featured in the games.

The Thai Olympic Committee planned the event to coincide with the commemoration of 80th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Officials studied the possibility of doing the events in multiple venues like what was done in Vietnam and the Philippines. It was the sixth time Thailand has hosted the SEA Games and its first time since 1995. Previously, Thailand had hosted the 1959 inaugural games, 1967, 1975, 1985 and the 1995 SEA Games. The 2007 games were to be hosted in Singapore, but the city-state gave up the chance in 2004 as the National Stadium was slated for demolition in around that time to build the Singapore Sports Hub. Aside from Nakhon Ratchasima, events were held at Bangkok[2] and at Chonburi.[3] Thailand is the first nation to host the Southeast Asian Games before Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam.

The final medal tally was led by host Thailand, followed by Malaysia and Vietnam. Several Asian, Games and National records were broken during the games. Though there were several controversies, the games were deemed generally successful with the rising standards of competition amongst the Southeast Asian Nations.

Organisation

Development and Preparation

On 24 February 2006, northeast Thailand's Nakhon Ratchasima Province authorities met to discuss the 2007 SEA Games schedule, and progress on the province's under-construction US$65 million sports complex. Presided over by governor Somboon Ngamlak, the meeting provided an overview of facilities, and ended with reassurances that facilities would be ready for SEA Games in 2007.

Venues

Most of the games will be held in the $65 million sports complex on Pakthongchai Road in Nakhon Ratchasima.[4] The sports complex holds the 20,000-seater His Majesty the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary, 5th December 2007 Sports Complex. The sports complex also includes a 5,000-seater indoor stadium, 16 tennis court facilities, among other facilities scheduled to be finished on June 2007.[5]

Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat)

His Majesty the King's 80th Anniversary Birthday Anniversary Stadium (5 December 2007)

Suranaree University of Technology

Other Venue

Bangkok
Chon Buri

Marketing

Logo and mascot

"Can", the official mascot of the 2007 Southeast Asian Games

The logo of the 2007 SEA games is an image of row of three sailing boats representing the 40th anniversary His Majesty the King, Bhumibol Adulyadej won a gold medal in a sailing competition in the 1967 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games.

The mascot of the 2007 SEA Games is a Korat cat named Can.[6] The cat wears "Pha Khao Ma", a traditional Thai loincloth, and plays the khaen, a Northeastern-style mouth organ. The mascot was created by Sa-ard Jomnagrm and was named "Can" by an eight-year-old girl, Piyathida Sreewimon.[7]

The Korat cat is a slate blue-grey shorthair domestic cat with a small to medium build and a low percentage of body fat. It is one of the oldest stable cat breeds in Thailand and named after the Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) province.

Songs

Four theme songs were composed for the games namely, Rhythm of The Winner, We are The Water, Friendship Card and Korat SEA Games.[8]

Sponsors

The games

Participating nations

Country Athletes Officials
IOC Code Name Men Women Total Men Women Total
BRUBrunei Brunei 51106144246
CAMCambodia Cambodia 1617123264468
INAIndonesia Indonesia 36920557416028188
LAOLaos Laos 24616841418635221
MASMalaysia Malaysia 49432682023955294
MYAMyanmar Myanmar 29221450615635191
PHIPhilippines Philippines 37324762014332175
SINSingapore Singapore 26218044216551216
THAThailand Thailand 54044298234265407
TLSEast Timor Timor Leste 7-78-8
VIEVietnam Vietnam 33129362415217169
Total 31262156528216593241983

Sports

Indonesia plays against Thailand in SEA Games Polo 2007

The 2007 SEAG featured 475 events in 43 sports and also 2 demonstration sports (i.e. Go and Kempo).[10] The 24th edition of the games will have the highest number of sporting events in the entire history of the SEAG, more events than the Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

¹ - not an official Olympic Sport
² - sport played only in the SEAG
³ - not a traditional Olympic nor SEAG Sport and introduced only by the host country.
° - a former official Olympic Sport, not applied in previous host countries and was introduced only by the host country.

Medal table

A total of 1,542 medals, comprising 477 gold medals, 470 silver medals, and 595 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The Host Thailand performance was their best ever yet in Southeast Asian Games history and emerged as overall champion of the games.[11]

Key

  *   Host nation (Thailand)

2007 Southeast Asian Games medal table
 Rank  NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Thailand (THA)*183123103409
2 Malaysia (MAS)685296216
3 Vietnam (VIE)645882204
4 Indonesia (INA)566483203
5 Singapore (SIN)434341127
6 Philippines (PHI)419196228
7 Myanmar (MYA)14264787
8 Laos (LAO)573244
9 Cambodia (CAM)251118
10 Brunei (BRU)1146
11 Timor-Leste (TLS)0000
Total (11 NOCs) 477 470 595 1542

Concerns and controversies

The 24th Southeast Asian Games ended December 15 with hosts Thailand scooping a mammoth 183 golds, but the 10-day showpiece was overshadowed by claims of unfair judging.[12] Thai male field hockey player, Surathep Wisawathiron became the first athlete tested positive for using methyltestosterone.[13] Also, the Thai gymnast athlete, Panaporn Kosol tested positive for steroids.[14] Malaysia withdrew from all Sepak Takraw events after they disapproved of the use of a new rubber ball. Sepak Takraw usually uses a ball made out of rattan. This led to Thailand winning several of the Sepak Takraw events, there had also been claims Malaysia was concerned that its youthful teams might have struggled to compete.[15] Mary Antoinette Rivero of the Philippines was defeated 7-4 by Cassandra Haller of Thailand in women's taekwondo under-65-kilogram category; Rivero was actually leading by three points in the third round and floored Haller but Haller was given the points by the judges. This led to the disgust of the other Filipino taekwondo-jins that they walked out of the venue.[16] The Philippines staged a massive walkout in the finals of the Boxing events to signal their displeasure against the judges and officials for biased judging during the women's boxing bout a day earlier.[17] Two out of seven Filipino boxers didn't answer the bell for round 1 while 4 others didn't answer the bell for succeeding rounds on their gold medal matches against their Thai opponents, thus forfeiting their bouts in favor of the Thais.[18] Only Boonjumnong's opponent, Larry Semilano, fought the entire match, losing to his Thai opponent on points.[19] All participating countries complained for the massive cheating of the host Thailand in the event. Thailand obviously manipulated all events to gain more golds in favor to them.

See also

References

  1. ↑ HOME PAGE - SEA Games 2007 Information Center Nakhon Ratchasima THAILAND
  2. ↑ Bangkok competitions map
  3. ↑ Chonburi competitions map
  4. ↑ Organizing committee reports sports stadium ready for the Games
  5. ↑ Venues construction updates
  6. ↑ SEA GAMES Mascot available for sale on Aug 11
  7. ↑ SEA Games mascot, emblem unveiled
  8. ↑ Songs
  9. ↑ "Official Website of the games". 31 December 2007. Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  10. ↑ SEA Games list of sports by the Korat Post
  11. ↑ "24th SEA games Website of OCA". 31 December 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  12. ↑ SEA Games ends with hosts Thailand topping medal table
  13. ↑ Thai field hockey prayer tests positive in Southeast Asian Games doping test
  14. ↑ Thai pair kicked out of SEA Games after failed drugs tests
  15. ↑ Thailand sweeps gold in sepak takraw at SEA Games
  16. ↑ GMA News relates 'unfair' loss of RP jin at SEA Games taekwondo
  17. ↑ SEA Games: Boxing chaos mars Thai gold success
  18. ↑ RP boxers forfeit golds in walkout at SEA Games
  19. ↑ RP boxers' forfeiture of final matches stirs up SEA Games

External links

Preceded by
2005
Manila, Philippines		 Southeast Asian Games Succeeded by
2009
Vientiane, Laos
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