24th Southeast Asian Games

The 24th Southeast Asian Games (also known as SEA Games) was held in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand from December 6 to December 16, 2007. The Thai Olympic Committee planned the event to coincide with the commemoration of 80th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Officials studied the possibility of doing the events in multiple venues like what was done in Vietnam and the Philippines.

It was the sixth time Thailand has hosted the SEA Games. Thailand had hosted the 1959 (inaugural games), 1967, 1975, 1985 and 1995 SEA Games. The 2007 games were to be hosted in Singapore, but the city-state gave up the chance in 2004 as the National Stadium was slated for demolition in around that time to build the Singapore Sports Hub.

Aside from Nakhon Ratchasima, events were held at Bangkok^[2] and at Chonburi.^[3]

The 2007 SEA Games will feature more than 400 events in 43 sports and also 2 demonstration sports (i.e. Go and Kempo).^[12] The 24th edition of the games will have the highest number of sporting events in the entire history of the SEA Games, more events than the Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

Archery Aquatics Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketballʰ Billiards and Snooker¹ Bodybuilding¹ Boxing Bowling¹ Canoe/Kayak

Cycling Dancesport³ Equestrian Fencing Football Golf¹ Gymnastics Handball Hockey Judo Karatedo¹

Lawn bowls³ Muay Thai² Netball³ Pencak Silat² Pétanque² Polo¹ Rowing Rugby Sailing Sepak Takraw¹ Shooting

Softball° Squash¹ Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Traditional boat race¹ Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling Wushu¹

¹ - not an official Olympic Sport
² - sport played only in the SEA Games
³ - not a traditional Olympic nor SEA Games Sport and introduced only by the host country.
° - a former official Olympic Sport, not applied in previous host countries and was introduced only by the host country.
^ʰ - sport not played in the previous edition and was reintroduced by the host country.

==Medal summary==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
{| {{Sports result table}}
!Rank||Country||align="center" bgcolor="gold"|Gold||align="center" bgcolor="silver"|Silver||align="center" bgcolor="CC9966"|Bronze||Total||width=10px rowspan=12| ||Gold medal target
|-bgcolor=ccccff
|- bgcolor=ccccff
|1||{{flagicon|Thailand}} [[Thailand at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Thailand]]
|183||123||103||409||150[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/316217_52/1/.html SEA Games: Thailand looks to consolidate medals lead]
|-
|2||{{flagicon|Malaysia}} [[Malaysia at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Malaysia]]
|68||52||96||216||64[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/316210_52/1/.html SEA Games: Malaysia hopes to bag 64 gold medals]
|-
|3||{{flagicon|Vietnam}} [[Vietnam at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Vietnam]]
|64||58||82||204||60-65[http://english.vietnamnet.vn/sports/2007/12/758831/ Vietnam remains second at SEA Games]
|-
|4||{{flagicon|Indonesia}} [[Indonesia at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Indonesia]]
|56||64||83||203||65[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/315666_52/1/.html SEA Games: Indonesia set modest target of 65 gold medals]
|-
|5||{{flagicon|Singapore}} [[Singapore at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Singapore]]
|43||43||41||127||35-45[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/315905_52/1/.html SEA Games: Team Singapore targeting 35 to 45 gold medals]
|-
|6||{{flagicon|Philippines}} [[Philippines at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Philippines]]
|41||91||96||228||70[http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/05/sports/AS-SPT-SEA-Games.php Thailand set to extend host domination at Southeast Asian Games]
|-
|7||{{flagicon|Myanmar}} [[Myanmar at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Myanmar]]
|14||26||47||87
|-
|8||{{flagicon|Laos}} [[Laos at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Laos]]
|5||7||32||44
|-
|9||{{flagicon|Cambodia}} [[Cambodia at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Cambodia]]
|2||5||11||18
|-
|10||{{flagicon|Brunei}} [[Brunei Darussalam at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Brunei Darussalam]]
|1||1||4||6||
|-
|11||{{flagicon|East Timor}} [[Timor Leste at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games|Timor Leste]]
|0||0||0||0||
|}

Controversies

• The 24th Southeast Asian Games was the most protested games in the entire history of the games especially on the 10th day showpiece was overshadowed by claims of unfair judging.^[13]
• Thai male field hockey player, Surathep Wisawathiron became the first athlete tested positive for using methyltestosterone.^[14]
• Also, the Thai gymnast athlete, Panaporn Kosol tested positive for steroids .^[15]
• Malaysia withdrew from all Sepak Takraw events after they disapproved of the use of a new rubber ball. Sepak Takraw usually uses a ball made out of rattan. This led to Thailand winning several of the Sepak Takraw events. But there had also been claims Malaysia was concerned that its youthful teams might have struggled to compete.^[16]
• Mary Antoinette Rivero of the Philippines was defeated 7-4 by Cassandra Haller of Thailand in women's taekwondo under-65-kilogram category; Rivero was actually leading by three points in the third round and floored Haller but Haller was given the points by the judges. This led to the disgust of the other Filipino taekwondo-jins that they walked out of the venue.^[17]
• The Philippines staged a massive walkout in the finals of the Boxing events to signal their displeasure against the judges and officials for biased judging during the women's boxing bout a day earlier.^[18] Two out of seven Filipino boxers didn't answer the bell for round 1 while 4 others didn't answer the bell for succeeding rounds on their gold medal matches against their Thai opponents, thus forfeiting their bouts in favor of the Thais.^[19] Only Boonjumnong's opponent, Larry Semilano, fought the entire match, losing to his Thai opponent on points.^[20]

References

1. ^ HOME PAGE - SEA Games 2007 Information Center Nakhon Ratchasima THAILAND
2. ^ Bangkok competitions map
3. ^ Chonburi competitions map
4. ^ SEA Games: Thailand looks to consolidate medals lead
5. ^ SEA Games: Malaysia hopes to bag 64 gold medals
6. ^ Vietnam remains second at SEA Games
7. ^ SEA Games: Indonesia set modest target of 65 gold medals
8. ^ SEA Games: Team Singapore targeting 35 to 45 gold medals
9. ^ Thailand set to extend host domination at Southeast Asian Games
10. ^ Organizing committee reports sports stadium ready for the Games
11. ^ Venues construction updates
12. ^ SEA Games list of sports by the Korat Post
13. ^ SEA Games ends with hosts Thailand topping medal table
14. ^ Thai field hockey prayer tests positive in Southeast Asian Games doping test
15. ^ Thai pair kicked out of SEA Games after failed drugs tests
16. ^ Thailand sweeps gold in sepak takraw at SEA Games
17. ^ GMA News relates 'unfair' loss of RP jin at SEA Games taekwondo
18. ^ SEA Games: Boxing chaos mars Thai gold success
19. ^ RP boxers forfeit golds in walkout at SEA Games
20. ^ RP boxers' forfeiture of final matches stirs up SEA Games