Thailand beat Vietnam in SEA Games soccer final
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - Thailand beat
Vietnam 2-0 on Saturday to win the
Southeast Asian Games soccer title
for the fourth successive time.
Thawatchai Ongtrakul opened the
scoring in the 39th minute when he
struck a vicious right-foot drive from
the edge of the box past goalkeeper
Tran Minh Quang.
Dusit Charlesman sealed the win with
another long-range effort in the 85th
minute.
``The 2-0 scoreline wasn't important.
It was the gold medal that really
mattered,'' Thailand manager Virach
Chaupanich said. ``Winning it for a
fourth time is really something
special.''
The soccer win capped a memorable
day for the entire Thailand contingent
after they opened an unbeatable lead
in the medals table with only one day
of competition remaining.
They started the day trailing Malaysia
by a single gold but picked up
another 15 to take their overall total
to 54, 10 clear of Malaysia with only
eight golds to be decided on Sunday.
The key to Thailand's success was
their powerful boxing team who won
eight of the 11 divisions contested at
the Brunei police club.
Their tennis players were also in
good touch with Paradon Srichapan
winning the men's singles before
teaming up with older brother
Narathorn to win the doubles.
He said later he felt it was a hollow
win because most of the region's top
players were not at the Games.
``There's nothing really great in these
achievements,'' Srichapan said.
Indonesia, who finished on top of the
medals table at the 1997 SEA
Games in Jakarta, picked up six gold
medals on Saturday.
They won golds in badminton, tennis
and table tennis but the highlight of
their day was undoubtedly Alberth
Pailaya's knockout victory over
Thailand's Somsak Janthaporn in the
light heavyweight boxing final.
As expected, Malaysia won both the
men's and women's hockey titles
while Shahrul Neeza won his second
cycling gold.
The Commonwealth Games silver
medalist added the 165-km road
race to his earlier win the 41-km time
trial when he completed the course in
just over four hours, winning by little
more than a second from Vietnam's
Mai Cong Hieu.
Singapore won the women's and
mixed doubles table tennis events as
well as the women's lawn bowls
singles final.
The Philippines won two golds in
boxing and their first women's singles
tennis title when Maricris Fernandes
beat Indonesian top seed Wynne
Prakusya 6-4 6-4.
``I am just overwhelmed by the
result. Winning on the professional
circuit is just part and parcel for most
of us but winning for your country is
definitely a different feeling,''
Fernandes said.
``At match point I was already
feeling like throwing the racket and
running around the court with the
national flag but I told myself to be
patient.''
Reuters - August 14, 1999.
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