HANOI, Dec 13 (AFP) - The Southeast Asian Games endedSaturday with hosts Vietnam comfortably topping the goldmedal rankings ahead of Thailand.
Around 40,000 people crammed into Hanoi’s My DinhNational Stadium to witness the closing ceremony of the22nd edition of the biennial regional mini-Olympics.
In total, more than 5,000 athletes and coaches from 11countries have taken part in the Games, which officiallybegan on December 5 after a week of pre-opening ceremonycompetition.
Vietnam finished with 158 gold medals, 97 silvers and91 bronzes. Thailand took home 90 golds, 93 silvers and98 bronzes.
Third placed Indonesia won 55 golds but 2001 tabletoppers Malaysia only managed to snare 44 gold medals tofinish fifth, four golds behind the Philippines.Debutants East Timor, however, went home empty handedfailing to win any type of medal.
Vietnam’s overall success in hosting the Games wasmarred by their failure to secure the prestigious men’sfootball crown. The hosts lost 2-1 to Thailand in thefinal Friday in sudden death extra time.
It was Thailand’s sixth consecutive Southeast AsianGames title.
With a 1-0 lead approaching full time and Vietnam downto 10 men, Thailand seemed to have the game in the bag,but striker Pham Van Quyen levelled the scores in thefirst minute of stoppage time.
Thailand, however, sealed victory and the gold medalin the sixth minute of extra time when left backNataporn Phanrit smashed a thunderous left footer intothe roof of the net to the horror of the 40,000 homefans.
We did not play well in the first half, while theThais dominated the midfield,'' Vietnam coach AlfredRiedl said afterwards. We played better in the second half. However, welacked luck and had to accept the loss.’’
They have two years to dwell on what went wrong. The2005 Southeast Asian Games will be held in thePhilippines.