HANOI, 14 December 2003 — The Southeast Asian Games ended yesterday with hosts Vietnam comfortably topping the gold medal rankings ahead of Thailand.
Around 40,000 people crammed into Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium to witness the closing ceremony of the 22nd edition of the biennial regional mini-Olympics.
In total, more than 5,000 athletes and coaches from 11 countries have taken part in the games, which officially began on Dec. 5 after a week of pre-opening ceremony competition.
Vietnam finished with 158 gold medals, 97 silvers and 91 bronzes. Thailand took home 90 golds, 93 silvers and 98 bronzes.
Third placed Indonesia won 55 golds but 2001 table toppers Malaysia only managed to snare 44 gold medals to finish fifth, four golds behind the Philippines. Debutants East Timor, however, went home empty handed failing to win any type of medal.
Vietnam’s overall success in hosting the games was marred by their failure to secure the prestigious men’s football crown. The hosts lost 2-1 to Thailand in the final Friday in sudden-death extra time.
It was Thailand’s sixth consecutive Southeast Asian Games title.
With a 1-0 lead approaching full time and Vietnam down to 10 men, Thailand seemed to have the game in the bag, but striker Pham Van Quyen leveled the scores in the first minute of stoppage time.
Thailand, however, sealed victory and the gold medal in the sixth minute of extra time when left back Nataporn Phanrit smashed a thunderous left footer into the roof of the net to the horror of the 40,000 home fans.
They have two years to dwell on what went wrong. The 2005 Southeast Asian Games will be held in the Philippines.
