BANGKOK: Never mind what the critics may say – the Malaysian contingent came out of Thailand with flying colours.
The contingent had been set a target of 200 medals but they smashed it, winning 231, with 57 golds, 57 silvers and 117 bronzes. It was the contingent’s best ever outing since the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games which saw them regaining a top four finish overall after a dismal seventh-place finish in Cambodia two years ago.
When the Games were last held on Malaysian soil at that time, the national contingent finished as overall champions with a total of 145 gold, 91 silver and 86 bronze medals.
The 231-medal haul is the highest total garnered at a SEA Games held outside KL.
But the sobering reminder is that only 26 of the 57 gold medals came from Olympic disciplines, accounting for just 46.43%. The remainder were secured in non-Olympic or regional sports.
The Thailand organisers included the highest number of Olympic events this time – 336 out of the total of 573.
In contrast, hosts Thailand topped the Olympic gold medal count with 109, followed by Indonesia (54), Vietnam (51), Singapore (38) and the Philippines (31).
Jefri Ngadirin.
Track and field set the benchmark among Olympic sports – delivering five gold medals and reaffirming its role as Malaysia’s main contributor in multi-event programmes. In reality, though, there is a big gap between Malaysians and the elite level.
Track cycling, gymnastics, shooting and squash formed the next tier of reliable gold producers while badminton, archery, sailing, diving and taekwondo fell short of their pre-Games targets.
National Sports Council director-general Jefri Ngadirin, however, stressed there was a noticeable improvement in performance compared to the last two SEA Games in Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia (2023).
“We managed to win gold in 28 of the 50 sports contested. Performances in certain sports fell short of expectations but we also have to take into account the unique challenges in Bangkok.
“All came here with the objective of putting up their best performances and the SEA Games is only a bridge to bigger competitions after this. It is important that we continue to support our young athletes.
“We had several national records in swimming although we are still behind our neighbours, so the improvements gives us hope for the future,” he added.
A total of 12 national and six Games records were set by Malaysian athletes in swimming, athletics, track cycling and shooting.
