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Games start amid glitches, typhoon threat
Show of strength: Indonesian weightlifter Lisa Setiawati performs a clean and jerk lift during the women’s 45-kilogram final in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at Rizal Memorial Sports Stadium in Manila on Sunday
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how of strength: Indonesian weightlifter Lisa Setiawati performs a clean and jerk lift during the women’s 45-kilogram final in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at Rizal Memorial Sports Stadium in Manila on Sunday. Lisa won a silver medal with her best lift of 169 kg.(Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
The latest warning for Typhoon Kammuri and reports that around 3,000 people were moved to safety have colored the second day of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, which officially kicked off on Saturday night.
The much-anticipated opening ceremony, held at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, featured elaborate traditional dances that displayed what organizers described as Ugat ng Ating Lakas (The Roots of Our Strength), which was also the event’s theme.
Officiating the ceremony, President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed athletes and officials from participating countries and wished them the best of luck in the region’s biggest sporting event.
“The 30th edition of 2019 SEA Games is hereby officially commenced, mabuhay kayong lahat [long live all of you],” said Duterte, who was later seen with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam at the VVIP lane.
Alongside the Philippines’ contingent, Duterte seemed to be the star of the evening as the crowd cheered every time his name was mentioned inside the stadium, which has a capacity of 55,000 seats.
The opening ceremony was concluded by Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao and junior boxer Nesty Petecio, who lit up a cauldron with the event’s theme song blaring through the venue.
After the show, 63-year-old Philippine native Andy Inot said he was pleased with the opening show as it made him proud to be a Filipino.
“We love our country and all our neighboring countries participating at the SEA Games,” said Andy, who acknowledged that the festivities surrounding the opening ceremony had exceeded his expectations.
Fellow citizen Hanna Bautista, meanwhile, said the opening ceremony was impressive and would make up for the various mishaps that had occurred leading up to the event.
“That’s how Filipinas do it,” she said.
Indonesia, the second-largest participating contingent with 841 athletes competing in 52 sports, secured its first gold medal in men’s water polo on Saturday by accumulating more points than runners up Singapore and Malaysia.
The team made history for Indonesia as it was the first time an Indonesian water polo squad had beaten Singapore, which had dominated the sport since it was first introduced to the SEA Games in the 1960s.
Two silver medals were won by the women’s sepak takraw team, comprised of Sari Dini, Asmira Asma and lena Lena and weightlifter Lisa Setiawati, who won the silver in the women’s 45-kilogram competition.
Triathletes Nethavani Octaria and Ahlul Firman both earned a bronze medal in the women’s and men’s categories, respectively. Three other bronze medals were presented by Zahira Savira Reka in the women’s ice skating’s senior single category, Wijoyo Surahmat, who won the medal in the men’s weightlifting’s 55-kg category and Horatius Harris, who secured the medal in the wushu’s taolu nandau category.
In total, Indonesia has secured one gold, two silvers and five bronze medals.
Aside from the typhoon warning, the 2019 SEA Games have been marred by logistical hiccups and what has widely been described as a serious lack of coordination that inconvenienced several national teams.
Indonesia’s U-23 soccer players, for example, had to walk nearly 2 kilometers from their hotel to the training ground because no bus had arrived to pick them up for practice a day before their first match against Thailand, which was later won by the Indonesian side 2-0.
The Timor Leste national team was escorted to the wrong hotel after hours of waiting at the airport. The litany of hiccups during the first days of the event angered President Duterte, who later apologized and vowed that improvements were on the way.
The last time the Philippines hosted the SEA Games was in 2005 and before that, 1981 and 1991. Around 8,750 athletes from 11 countries — Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and host country Philippines — are competing in 56 sports.
