What does Southeast Asian sports expect from ASIAD 19?

Paris 2024 Olympics ticket in sight

The Singapore swimming team has set a dual goal, including the ability to win at least 2 gold medals at the 19th Asian Games as the target, while also hoping that the athletes will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. "We can reduce the volume and focus on the Asian Games to increase the ability to compete for more medals. However, aiming for the Olympics is also a very important focus for the Singapore swimming team," said Gary Tan, head coach of the Singapore swimming team, in an interview with CNA (Singapore) on September 6.

"We calculate the possibility of winning 2 swimming medals at the 19th ASIAD regardless of the color. The athletes' performance is what we care about more. We only focus on swimming, instead of always putting pressure on ourselves to win gold. The events we focus on to win medals are the men's 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle, with athletes Mikkel Lee and Teong Tzen Wei (50m butterfly) and Jonathan Tan (50m freestyle). We are confident in setting the target of winning medals in these events, because we are ranked higher than the host athletes China, who will definitely push their limits to win medals," said Mr. Gary Tan.

Letitia Sim (left) and Jonathan Tan are the golden hopes of Singapore swimming.

Singaporean swimming won 6 medals at the 18th ASIAD, including 2 gold medals from "super swimmer" Joseph Schooling (50m and 100m butterfly), 1 silver medal and 3 bronze medals, behind two Asian swimming "superpowers" Japan and China.

However, at the 19th ASIAD, Joseph Schooling was not on the list of competitors due to his poor performance. "Singapore swimming will have to adapt to the new era. We focus on other athletes and have higher expectations for Letitia Sim (a 20-year-old female athlete who holds the national record in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke) and Jonathan Tan (record holder in the 50m freestyle and 100m individual medley for men)," added Mr. Gary Tan.

At the 18th ASIAD, Singapore ranked 5th among the participating Southeast Asian countries, winning 4 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 14 bronze medals. The host team Indonesia won 31 gold medals, 24 silver medals and 43 bronze medals. Thailand won 11 gold medals, 6 silver medals and 46 bronze medals. Malaysia ranked 3rd with 7 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 16 bronze medals. Ranked 4th was the Vietnamese team with 5 gold medals, 15 silver medals and 19 bronze medals.

However, after 5 years (including 1 year postponed due to the pandemic), the 19th ASIAD is likely to have major changes in the rankings of sports delegations in the Southeast Asian region. The reason is that some sports will not be organized, along with major changes in the athlete force. For example, the Vietnamese sports delegation is in the transition period of athletes, or Indonesia will certainly no longer maintain the advantage of being the host.

Will Thailand regain the No. 1 position in Southeast Asia at ASIAD?

Since the 13th ASIAD in Bangkok in 1998, Thai sports have always ranked number 1 in Southeast Asia at most ASIADs, except for the time when they had to rank behind Indonesia in 2018.

At the 18th Asian Games, pencak silat alone helped Indonesia win 14 gold medals. This sport was not held at the 19th Asian Games. Therefore, Indonesia will lose a "gold mine". Meanwhile, Thai sports still have strong sports such as sepak takraw (won 4 gold medals), taekwondo (2 gold medals) at the 2018 Games.

The Malaysian sports delegation will also find it difficult to achieve the target of 7 gold medals like at the 18th ASIAD, because bowling (won 2 gold medals and 2 silver medals) will no longer be held at the 19th ASIAD. Vietnamese sports will also face a similar situation when losing 2 gold medals from pencak silat, a strong sport in athletics (2 gold medals) and it will be extremely difficult to maintain the target when the inherited athletes have not reached the level of the continental playground.

In this context, the Thai and Singaporean sports delegations, thanks to their long-standing good investment in Olympic sports, have been inherited and maintained throughout, and promise to continue to have success at the ASIAD arena.

Boonson is only 17 years old.

Thai athletics prodigy Puripol Boonson wins ASIAD gold medal?

Puripol Boonson, 17 years old this year, won all 3 gold medals at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi in the 200m, 100m and 4 x 100m relay events. However, at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in May, this Thai track and field gold hope suffered an injury and had to say goodbye to the tournament early.

After a period of injury, Puripol Boonson returned to competition to help Thai athletics win the gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay at the Asian Athletics Championships held in Bangkok in mid-July. This achievement helps him look forward to the 19th ASIAD with great confidence, when competing in his two favorite running events, the 100 m and 200 m. In these events, he will compete with leading Asian athletes from Japan such as Hiroki Yanagita and Towa Uzawa, who won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 m events respectively at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships. In addition, 19-year-old Malaysian athlete - Muhd ​​Azeem Fahmi is also considered a promising talent to win medals in athletics at the ASIAD for Southeast Asian sports.

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