HANOI, 27 December 2003 — The second ASEAN Para Games in Hanoi were expected to end up with an overall victory for Thailand, after four days of competition.
At midday yesterday, disabled Thai athletes had grabbed 82 gold medals, ahead of Vietnam with 60 and Malaysia with 37. Organizers said the final events would not change the countries’ placings.
The official closing ceremony is scheduled to take place today evening, at the Hanoi sports palace, local press said. About 700 special need athletes from the 10 ASEAN countries and East Timor participated in the event, during which Vietnam paid great attention to “send a message calling on the entire community to give more attention and better care to disabled people”.
Participants were divided into five degrees of disability, including those who are paralyzed, wheelchair-bound, visually impaired, suffering cerebral palsy or are mentally-retarded. Medals were distributed in five sports, with track-and-field, swimming, weightlifting, badminton and table-tennis.
Despite humid and cold weather, “a lot of people have come to the stadiums and the competition halls to support the disadvantaged athletes,” National Sports Committee vice-chairman Nguyen Trong Hy said. “The Vietnamese delegation will surely secure the second position, a better result than we expected.” Local press gave exhaustive coverage of the competition, praising Vietnam each day for its successes.
The Youth Union of the communist country’s capital had mobilized more than 1,300 students and young people in the city to prepare for the event, welcomed by government officials as an occasion to “praise disabled athletes who overcome all difficulties to be useful to society”. The competition was the occasion for East Timor to win its first ever medal, when Mateus Lukas, 25, grabbed the bronze in the men’s 48kg weightlifting division on Tuesday after lifting 110 kilos.
