Philippines Keep Lead Despite Cheating Charges

Manila - The Philippines on Thursday maintained its strong lead in the overall medal tally in the 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games despite being stripped off one gold in athletics and allegations of unfair judging in the competitions.

The host country has so far clinched 59 gold medals, 41 silvers and 48 bronzes, trailed by defending champion Vietnam with 43 golds, 39 silvers and 48 bronzes.

Thailand, whose Prime Minister Thaksin Shiniwatra has expressed dismay over alleged biased officiating in the games, was at close third with 34 golds, 46 silvers and 53 bronzes.

Of the 441 gold medals up for grabs in the nine-day biennial sporting event, 204 have so far been awarded since the start on Sunday.

A few hours after Thaksin complained about dubious officiating in the games on Wednesday, a Filipino runner was stripped of his gold medal after judges ruled that he illegally blocked his Thai opponent in the race.

Filipino runner Eduardo Buenavista was disqualified in the 5,000m race late Wednesday after the judges reviewed the video tape of the race and ruled that the Filipino "deliberately impeded" the path of Thailand's Boonthung Srisung.

The judges awarded the gold to Srisung. Jose Cojuangco, president of the Philippines SEA Games Organising Committee, informed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that senior Thai sports officials monitoring the games in Manila did not complain of any cheating.

"As a matter of record, the Southeast Asian Games Federation Council this morning congratulated the Philippines for the successful staging of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games," he wrote to Arroyo.

"If there is any advantage the host country availed of, it is the partisan crowd that have packed the galleries of most, if not all events," he added.

Malaysia kept its fourth place in the competition with 26 golds, 22 silvers and 28 bronzes. Indonesia followed with 22 golds, 28 silvers and 45 bronzes.

Singapore has amassed 16 golds, 16 silvers and 23 bronzes, followed by Myanmar with nine golds, 12 silvers and 21 bronzes, and Laos with one gold, three silvers and five bronzes.

Brunei has two silvers and two bronzes, while Cambodia got four bronzes. Only Timor Leste remained out of the medal column after five days of competition.

A Vietnamese sports official was the first to raise the alarm over the possibility of the host Philippines fixing the results of the Games in a bid to win the country's first overall crown in the 56-year-old SEA Games, which is the Olympics Games in the southeast Asia.

Two weeks before the Games started on November 27, head of the Vietnamese delegation Nguyen Van Minh told reporters in Hanoi that the Philippines has already fixed the results of the games to ensure a victory for the host.

In its two previous hostings in 1981 and 1991, the Philippines failed to grab the overall championship.

Since the first staging of the Games in 1959, Thailand won the overall crown nine times, while Indonesia closely followed with eight championships. Other winners in the competition are Myanmar in 1961 and 1969, Malaysia in 2001 and Vietnam in 2003. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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