SEA Games: Philippines tops medal table amid organisational chaos

The headlines from the SEA Games, which concluded in the Philippines on Wednesday night, have not all been positive.

There were a slew of organisational errors that saw a shortage of halal food for Muslim athletes, football teams training on the street and confusion over accommodation.

Organisers apologised before the Games had even started, Then there was the typhoon that wrought havoc on events and online outrage at the behaviour of athletes to one another and a trending hashtag: #SEAGAMES2019Fail.

It even was likened to the notorious scam Fyre Festival by some.

There were more serious allegations, too, such as the claim that the Philippines authorities had not done enough to combat the rise of sex trafficking around the surging visitor numbers for the Games.

So you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a disaster, but there were also plenty of feel-good stories from the past fortnight.

There was Singapore’s dominance in the pool, where they won 23 golds through 12 individual swimmers.

Six of those golds were won by Quah Zheng Wen, who beat Olympic champion teammate Joseph Schooling for one of them. Schooling also won two silver medals.

Quah was named the most valuable male athlete at the Gamesin recognition of his eight-medal haul.

It was also a family affair. Elder sister Ting Wen and young sister Jing Wen added swimming gold medals of their own and ensured the Quah siblings were key to Singapore’s record-equalling haul in the pool.

However, it was a former Singapore swimmer who stole hearts and headlines by ending a 38-year wait for a medal.

Christina Tham competed in her first SEA Games in 1981, aged just 12, where she won silver. She won another silver at the 1983 Games.

Last week in the Philippines she won two gold medals.

She was in the pool again but not as a swimmer. Tham won underwater hockey golds as part of the four-a-side and six-a-side teams.

Tham told Channel News Asia that she took up the sport, which made its Games debut this year, in 2005.

The hosts had plenty of success themselves, with home favourite Eumir Marcial needing just 71 seconds to retain his boxing gold.

Home fighters won five of the eight boxing golds in the men’s competition and another two of the five on offer in the women’s to help them to the top of the medal table.

Archery was not quite as fertile for medals but they did win one gold through husband and wife team Paul and Rachelle Dela Cruz in the mixed team compound. Fittingly the pair, who met in training, according to The Inquirer, live with their children in the archery team training compound.

All very wholesome and heart-warming but not a patch on the story of 15-year-old gymnast Daniela Dela Pisa. She won the hosts’ first gymnastics gold among her three medals.

The young gymnast at the Games is also a cancer survivor having battled ovarian cancer when she just four years old.