2013 Southeast Asian Games

Updated on Oct 02, 2024

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Nations participating 11 Events 460 in 37 sports Closing ceremony 22 December 2013		Athletes participating 4730 Opening ceremony 11 December 2013

Motto Green, Clean and Friendship

The 2013 Southeast Asian Games (Burmese: 2013 ခုနှစ်အရှေ့တောင်အာရှအားကစားပြိုင်ပွဲ) (2013 hkunhait aashaetaungaarsh aarrkahcarrpyainepwal) officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, was a multi-sport event took place in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar, as well as in other main cities, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung Beach with 460 events in 37 sports and disciplines featured in the games.

Myanmar had already hosted the Games in 1961 and 1969 respectively in Yangon, the then capital of Myanmar. For the third time, Myanmar hosted the Southeast Asian Games. Singapore withdrew its hosting rights due to expected delays in the completion of its new national stadium. Naypyidaw is the second Myanma city to host the Southeast Asian Games after Yangon. Myanmar is the second nation to host the Southeast Asian Games after Thailand.

The final medal tally was led by Thailand, followed by host Myanmar and Vietnam. Several Asian, Games and National records were broken during the games. Though there were several controversies, the Games were deemed generally successful with Myanmar games hosting experience after 44 years and with the rising standard of competition amongst the Southeast Asian nations.

Host city

Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand have revealed their intentions to host the Games. However, since the latter three nations hosted the 2003, 2005 and 2007 editions, respectively, these countries are ineligible to host this edition.

Myanmar held the largest time interval of hosting the games, spanning a time of 44 years. The Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council met in Jakarta on 31 May 2010 unanimously agreed to award the Myanmar Olympic Committee the right to host the 27th edition of the games. Official website of the Olympic Council of Asia also approved the fact that Myanmar would host the 27th Southeast Asian Games in its news launched on 7 June 2010. ASEAN Football Federation (AFF)'s official website also announced that Myanmar would host the games.

Development and preparation

The Myanmar SEA Games Organising Committee (MYASOC) led by U Tint Hsan was formed to oversee the staging of the event.

Venues

Naypyidaw

Wunna Theikdi Sports Complex

Main Stadium (Opening and Closing Ceremony, Athletics)

Indoor Stadium (Sepak Takraw, Wushu, Badminton, Karate, Taekwondo, Table Tennis)

Futsal Indoor Stadium (Futsal)

Boxing Indoor Stadium (Boxing, Muay)

Billiard & Snooker Indoor Stadium (Billiard)

Aquatic Centre (Diving, Swimming)

Equestrian Field (Equestrian)

Cycling Field (Cycling – Track)

Zayarthiri Sports Complex

Main Stadium (Football)

Indoor Stadium (Volleyball, Judo, Vovinam, Pencak Silat, Basketball)

Swimming Pool (Water Polo)

Other venues

Mount Pleasant (Cycling BMX,cross country, downhill)

Ngalike Dam (Canoeing, Rowing, Traditional Boat Race)

Road of Leway, Pyinmanar, Tatkon (Cycling – Road)

Royal Myanmar Golf Course (Golf)

Zabuthiri Hotel (Chess)

Yangon

Thuwunna Stadium (Football)

Thuwunna Indoor Stadium (Wrestling, Kenpō)

Thein Phyu Stadium (Weightlifting)

Hockey Field (Field Hockey)

North Dagon Shooting Range (Shooting)

Myanmar Convention Center (Bodybuilding)

Mandalay

Mandalarthiri Stadium (Football)

Ngwesaung

Ngwesaung Beach (Sailing)

Public Transport

As Naypyidaw is yet to be fully developed into a city, only shuttle bus services were provided throughout the games and were used to ferry athletes and officials to and from the airport, games venues and games village. The co-host cities of the games, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung also provided the same services during the games.

Logo and mascot

The logo of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games is the map of Myanmar. The ball with eleven rings resembling the 11 Southeast Asian countries and the Southeast Asian Games Federation represents the successful holding of Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar and yellow, green and red are the three national colours represented in Myanmar's National Flag. The yellow circle represents equality and fraternity, green color represents love of nature and the green economy and red color represents courage and hard working nature of Myanmar. The circular shape represents complete perfection and endless prosperity among the Southeast Asian countries.

The official mascot of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games is a couple of owls named Shwe Yoe and Ma Moe. The owls are considered lucky charms in Myanmar tradition. Owl is globally taken as the wisest, calmest and balanced animal. But, in Myanmar it is also taken to be auspicious and believed to bring forth luck and prosperity to the family, for which the owl dolls are kept at their homes as lucky charms. The owl as official mascot of Myanmar SEA Games 2013 has a personality: wise, calm, lucky, loyal, and friendly. The personality of an owl is expected to bring forth co-operation, friendship, and better understanding among the participating countries.

Songs

There were several songs composed for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, which includes the theme song of the games, "Colourful Garden" and many other campaign songs for the games.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 11 December 2013 at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium. It marked the nation's biggest sporting event hosted since 1969. It was led with pre-launch entertainment and a series of screens beamed a dramatic lights show during the Chinese-backed extravaganza.

Fireworks displays was made upon the entrance of President Thein Sein into the stadium. The theme song "Colourful Garden" was performed during the flag-raising ceremony after performances made by 12,000 school children and the Myanmar Royal Auspicious Orchestra. Chairman of the 27th SEA Games Organising Committee, Vice-President Nyan Tun declared the Games open with another explosion of colourful fireworks that lit up the night. Torch relay was passed through the hands of six former Myanmar athletes before Aye Myint Kyu, the Union Minister for Culture, handed it to a Burmese archer where he lit up the Games cauldron by shooting an arrow into it.

A showcase of arts and culture about history of Burma was made, with dance performances accompanied the ending of the ceremony.

Closing ceremony

The Games had its closing ceremony held at Wunna Theikdi Stadium on 22 December 2013. It was started with an hour of music following the performance of "Colorful Garden", the theme song for the Games and subsequently, "Loyalty of Blood" was later presented by well-known artists May Sweet and May Kha Lar. The musical hors d'oeuvres concluded with all artists joining together in "Be Peaceful". President Thein Sein and his wife Khin Khin Win then entered the stadium, following which the Closing Ceremony was officially opened with a pyrotechnic display.

Four performances were presented with the first directly connected the SEA Games to Myanmar tradition, celebrating the sport of chinlone, which is believed to have first appeared in Myanmar in the 5th century. It then followed with the "Elephant Dance" which about paying tribute to the elephants in Myanmar.

The Closing Ceremony then paid homage to the 135 officially recognised ethnic races diversity of the country with the performance of "Everlasting Myanmar", depicting the rich diversity of the population, and simultaneously the many obstacles on the path to realising a new, peaceful and prosperous modern state.

Medal winners of every participating countries were then paraded onto the stadium floor to the beat of martial music – chants of "Myanmar" ringing through the stadium.

With the procession complete, Vice-President Nyan Tun officially announced the 27th SEA Games concluded, as strobe lights searched the sky and a cornucopia of fireworks exploded over the stadium.

The first SEA Games in Myanmar in 44 years was then finally put to rest with one last volley of fireworks and round of musical performances following the official handing over of SEA Games responsibilities to Singapore, host of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games.

Participating nations

Host nation

Sports

Myanmar hosted 37 sports, less than the number of sport in 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia. Organisers did not nominate the sports of beach volleyball and dancesports, because they considered those uniforms unsuitable for Burmese women. Tennis and Gymnastics, are Olympic sports were not played in December. In this edition of the Games, floorball was also contested as a demonstration sport. The following sports below were calendared for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.

¹ – not an official Olympic Sport.
² – sport played only in the SEAG.
³ – not a traditional Olympic nor SEAG 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 table

A total of 1531 medals comprising 461 gold medals, 459 silver medals and 611 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The host Myanmar performance was the best ever yet in Southeast Asian Games history, and were only second to Thailand as overall champion. Athletics awarded 46 gold medals with maximum ones in that year's SEA Games.

Key

* Host nation (Myanmar)

Medal change

2 gold medalists from Myanmar, namely Saw Mar Lar Nwe and Min Zaw Oo, both from athletics and bodybuilding respectively and an Indonesian swimmer, Indra Gunawan were tested positive for a banned drug, thus were stripped off their gold and silver medals.

Broadcasting

Host nation

Concerns and controversies

Event cut down

The inclusion of Chinlone, an indigenous traditional Burmese sport is not sitting well with many nations and the exclusion of Olympic disciplines sports like gymnastics and tennis infuriated quite a few competing nations, and has become one of the controversial issues heading before the 27th Southeast Asian Games.

The host nation also included Sittuyin, a traditional Burmese chess, as a traditional chess number along with common chess competition number. Other competing nations were not familiar with this traditional Burmese chess.

Due to the reduction of a number of Olympic sports and addition of non-Olympic sports and sports wherein the host country excels, the Philippines decided to send 208 athletes only, which its smallest delegation in 14 years.

Controversial decision

The 100m freestyle swimming event for women which was held on 12 December was restarted after Thailand protested and appealed for a re-swim. Thailand claimed that its swimmer participating in the sporting event stopped in the middle of the event after hearing the second horn which signalled a false start. The other swimmers did not stop and the race was not interrupted. Pinky Brosas, national head coach of the Philippine national swimming team criticised the organisers for not interrupting the race and noted that the officials did not put down the 50m flag.

In the kata team event for women, the Vietnamese team has protested the decision of the jurors, which gave the gold medal to the host team (Myanmar). Subsequently, the juror committee had to have a meeting and admitted their mistakes. They released an apology to Vietnamese women kata team for their faults but the decision of juror could not be changed. Vietnamese media called this incident as a "gold medal robbery", which regularly occurs within SEA Games.

In the Pencak Silat Men's 55–60 kg, the committee didn't give the gold medal that had to be given to Indonesia after Mohammad Adhan won the final against Ye Kyaw Thu from Myanmar because Myanmar protested the decision of the jurors decision, and even their protest being rejected by the jurors, the committee still keep the medal and instead of cancelling all of Men's 55–60 kg Tarung event result.

In the football event for women, the coach of Myanmar women's national football team has vowed to make an official complaint over the alleged lack of expertise of the Indian referee during the team's SEA Games defeat on penalties to Thailand. Burmese fans were outraged by decisions that disallowed a Burma goal for offside but allowed a contentious goal by Thailand to stand.

In the Judo event, Indonesian Judo team refuses one silver and two bronze medals awarded to them as a protest of alleged referee unfairness against host athlete. According to Indonesian Judo team coach, the referee should stop the match when the host athlete locked Indonesian athlete shoulder in illegal foul moves, but the referee decided to overlook it and continue the match resulting in the defeat and injury of Indonesian athlete.

In 20 km walk event for women, Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc, the defending champion and the Asian silver medallist, failed to defend her title as the host athlete Saw Nar Lar Nwe walked much of the distance as if she was running, especially the last few metres to the finish. None of the judges warned her, while Viet Nam's complaint was ignored. Phuc cried when receiving the silver medal. Yet, in April 2014, the ASEAN Sports Federation announced the results of SEA Games' doping cases, including of Saw Nar Lar Nwe. Nwe tested positive for a banned drug and her result would be cancelled. Phuc, the silver medallist, will now receive the gold medal.

References

2013 Southeast Asian Games Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA