Griff88

The Azerbaijanis are all Indonesians lol

Indonesia will rely on badminton, weightlifting, and speed climbing to win gold medals in both the Asian Games and Olympics. For Asian Games, with the absence of pencak silat and no “host powers” to limit other countries from participating in some events, surely the medal prospects for Indonesia will be reduced. I predict 4-5 gold medals for Indonesia in Hangzhou. Other sports with medal chances include wushu, archery, cycling (MTB and probably track), sepak takraw, karate, dragon boat, and artistic gymnastics (relying on Rifda Irfanaluthfi)

Vietnam's main issue has always been funding, that's why their success in SEA Games doesn't really translate to higher level. Their women's runners for example is actually able to challenge for medal in Asian Games (only losing to the imported Bahrainis) but they do not often get the chance to compete internationally or have an even better facility at home. If they can find a way out from this funding problem and get the best program available to their athletes, success will come.

Real crazy sh*t. China was one point away from losing in the semifinal (16-20 down) and then turned the tide to grab the win. From that moment I’m sure Korea won’t even have any chance despite China vs Japan finished after midnight local time

See you again next edition in another Chinese city

QF Draw Results vs vs vs vs

I think this is the most medal for since 2009, but in term of gold 2011 & 2013 are still better

As far as I know, nope. The least I saw was 3 athletes in a few events

The Games ended with good ol’ football where the most populated participant finally winning the gold after 32 years Closing ceremony is tomorrow

The others are pretty boring, unfortunately

For the SEA Games closing ceremony, there is a 'do and don't' list for the spectators and one of the rules is "sit down and respect the leader when the leader is giving a speech"

On the other side of the world, also had an election. The anti-military and pro-Constitutional reform Move Forward Party is neck-to-neck with Pheu Thai which is led by Thaksin’s daughter. The military-aligned parties are clearly not doing well, hopefully they don’t launch another coup…

Cambodia winning bronze in weightlifting despite trailing 100 kg behind the silver medalist, thanks to 2 stronger competitors from Vietnam and Thailand who bombed out

Hahaha you’re right. I think as year passes by the controversies are trying to be bigger than the previous editions For me, this “Meng-gate” is on a different scale. Suddenly naturalized athlete with name change is not a rare thing, but this is somewhat like an identity fraud. To make it even more suspicious, Badminton Asia seemed to try “censor” the player in question on their updates and videos from some spectators showed that she is quickly escorted out from the venue when everyone was celebrating the badminton gold (even the stream suddenly ended without explanation)

The thing is, no one is going to do that here Especially in silat when the scores are close and then someone got penalized (-5 or -10 points), usually the penalized guy will be more vicious as if he’s going to kill you right here right now

Today is perhaps the craziest day - Indonesia women’s pencak silat athlete who was leading against her Vietnamese opponent was forced to default at 18 seconds remaining. The Indonesian was injured but hanged on to win the gold but the referee decided she is not fit to continue and the Vietnamese wins the gold. After some protest, it was decided that referee decision is invalid and the Indonesian now has the gold (no word about the Vietnamese athlete) - As people investigated who is the Cambodian badminton hero Chourng Meng, apparently she is former Chinese athlete Zhou Meng who announced her early retirement from the international circuit due to long lasting injuries. Usually when an athlete changed his/her country, the BWF ID will be the same but not the case with Ms. Meng. Many accused this is a BWF rule violation. - In the gaming event of Valorant, the Singaporean team was accused of abusing a bug on the match against Indonesia. As of now the debate is still ongoing

Mewatch quality has decreased considerably... Better to check the Cambodian TV on Facebook (TVK Cambodia, Bayon television, BTV Cambodia, AMS Central, AMS Sports, Cambodian Sport Television) or just type the Khmer phrase "ស៊ីហ្គេម 2023"

Sepak Takraw - Hoop competition

I hope the Thai association knows what a “reformation” means They kept saying “we are now reformed” in news but this is sooooo suspicious

Yep in badminton we will have the Sudirman Cup (mixed team world championships) next week, and the badminton event SEA Games spans for 2 weeks (team and individual). Countries like Thailand and Singapore sent their best athletes for the team competition to secure medals and then those who are selected to Sudirman Cup will fly from Cambodia to China, leaving the tier two players in the individual SEA Games. Malaysia is currently freaking out because their tier two women's badminton team was beaten 0-3 by the Philippines. Indonesians still see SEA Games as a big thing, especially when we used to dominate the Games in the 80-90s. There is like a "pride" and failing to place top 3 in SEA Games is a very bad thing. Even the government already started to shift focus and treat SEA Games as a place to find new talents, people still not having the same mindset. Getting a gold in SEA Games still give you a bigger spot on the newspaper than winning an Asian championships.

The host wants to get a medal in badminton, so...

Exactly. Very funny while Hidilyn Diaz joined AWC and let the aspiring youngsters to play in SEA Games

Look for “EventSilat” channel on Youtube. The broadcast looks like taken from a CCTV camera but it shows the live scoring (and also Indonesian commentary since it is from Indonesian Silat Association)

So close yet so far...

Teqball: https://www.facebook.com/amscentralkh/videos/3508945779384752/?__tn__=%2CO-R This tv station streamed the less popular sports, worth following for the Games