Southeast Asia strives for glory at ASIAD 16

November 12, 2010 | 08:41

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The 16th Asian Games will officially kick off in Guangzhou, China, tomorrow. Southeast Asian football teams including Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia have all secured important opening victories and now they must make their best efforts a to reap top rewards at this year’s biggest regional sporting event.

Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines have taken part in all 15 previous ASIAD games and Thailand has twice been in the top 3 and once in the top 4 on the medal tally.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Timor Leste have all sent their best squads to the event.

Despite the gap in overall force compared to China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, the Southeast Asian countries have their own strengths in weightlifting, boxing, taekwondo, sepak takraw, squash and dragon-boat racing.

Badminton and table tennis are also sports the Southeast Asians excel at, and Indonesia is the most prominent in both. They have won at least one gold medal in badminton at every Olympic Games since 1992.

Malaysia and Thailand have also recorded remarkable progress in recent years. The Singaporean women's table tennis team is considered a formidable opponent for China having won a silver medal in the team event at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Southeast Asian countries also pin their hopes on boxing, weightlifting and taekwondo; Thailand has bagged a lot of medals in boxing at recent Olympic Games.

Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia also won several weightlifiting medals at the Olympic Games in Athens and Beijing. They are favourites in some traditional events such as wushu, sepak takraw, squash and dragon-boat racing.

Nhan dan

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