Thailand dominated the athletics at the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, winning 17 of the 46 gold medals on offer during the six days of competition which concluded on Friday (12).No fewer than 11 Games records, 42 national records and three Southeast Asian records were set at the newly built 55,000 capacity National Stadium.Undoubtedly one of the top performers of the championships was Eric Cray of the Philippines. The Texas-based athlete clocked a national record of 10.25 (0.0m/s) to win the 100m, finishing comfortably in front of Indonesia&rsquo;s Yaspi Boby and Iswandi, who took silver and bronze respectively in 10.45.One day later, Cray successfully defended his title in the 400m hurdles, smashing the Games record with a time of 49.40, just outside the national record of 49.12 he set earlier this year. Vietnam&rsquo;s Quach Cong Lich was second in 50.29.Cray will contest the 400m hurdles at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 and will hope to improve on his performance in Moscow two years ago when he didn&rsquo;t make it past the first round.Indonesia&rsquo;s Maria Londa successfully defended her titles in the long jump and triple jump. But the Asian Games champion was pushed all the way in the long jump by Bui Thi Thu Thao.The Vietnamese athlete surprised the 24-year-old in the opening round with a national record of 6.58m, three centimetres farther than Londa&rsquo;s PB. Londa fouled her first attempt and then jumped only 6.04m in the second round, while Thu Thao extended her lead to 6.60m.But Londa responded in the third round with 6.70m, smashing her own national record by 15 centimetres and achieving the qualifying standard for the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Olympics.Thu Thao tried her best to get back on top. Her next two jumps looked to beyond 6.80m, but her foot left noticeable marks on the plasticine. In the final round she sailed out to 6.65m, her third national record of the day, but not quite enough to catch Londa.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m thrilled with my success to qualify for my first Olympics, all my hard work in training is paying off,&rdquo; she told local reporters. &ldquo;To achieve something in life, you must have true passion, dedication and motivation.&rdquo;The next day, Londa jumped 13.75m to win the triple jump in an even closer competition, finishing just two centimetres ahead of Thailand&rsquo;s Thitima Muangjan.The men&rsquo;s event was won by Malaysia&rsquo;s Hakimi Ismail, who smashed his own national record to win with a Games record of 16.76m.<h3>Triple gold for Nguyen</h3>Vietnam&rsquo;s Nguyen Thi Huyen was the only athlete at the Games who has met the criteria for both the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Olympics in two individual events.In Singapore, she first destroyed the Games record in the 400m hurdles, breaking her own national record with 56.15. She then set a PB and Asian-leading time of 52.00 to win the 400m. She capped off a successful week by anchoring the Vietnamese quartet to victory in the 4x400m, clocking a Games record of 3:31.46.Nguyen&rsquo;s Vietnamese compatriots Duong Van Thai and Do Thi Thao also won multiple titles. Duong won the men&rsquo;s 800m and 1500m in 1:51.43 and 3:47.04 respectively, while Do took gold in the women&rsquo;s events, clocking 2:05.22 and 4:28.39.Indonesia&rsquo;s Triyaningsih achieved a similar feat in the longer distances, winning the women&rsquo;s 5000m and 10,000m in 16:18.06 and 33:44.53 respectively.<h3>Thai dominance continues</h3>Thailand&rsquo;s Jamras Rittidet won his fourth consecutive Southeast Asian title in the 110m hurdles, breaking the Games record for the fourth time in succession. He clocked 13.69 (0.2m/s) to finish 0.28 ahead of Malaysia&rsquo;s Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian, who once again had to settle for the silver medal.In the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles, Rittidet&rsquo;s training partner Wallapa Punsongneun regained the gold medal from Indonesia&rsquo;s defending champion Dedeh Erawati, 13.56 to 13.61.Having thrown beyond 60 metres this season, Thailand&rsquo;s Subenrat Insaeng won the discus by more than 12 metres, setting a Games record of 59.56m to win her third consecutive title.Thailand won three of the relay events, taking gold in the men&rsquo;s 4x100m and 4x400m in 38.99 and 3:06.81, as well as the women&rsquo;s 4x100m in 44.27.<h3>Young stars shine</h3>Singapore&rsquo;s Veronica Shanti Pereira delighted the home crowd with victory in the women&rsquo;s 200m. The 19-year-old set a national record of 23.60 to beat pre-race favourite Kayla Richardson, who finished second in 23.71.Richardson, just 17, had earlier won the 100m in a photo-finish ahead of Thailand&rsquo;s Tassaporn Wannakit, both clocking 11.76.Another teenager won the men&rsquo;s 200m. Vietnam&rsquo;s Le Trong Hinh, 19, set a national record of 20.89 to take gold ahead of Thailand&rsquo;s Jaran Sathoengram (21.05) and defending champion Jirapong Meenapra (21.13).Malaysian 19-year-old Irfan Shamsuddin successfully defended his discus title with a distance of 56.62m.The next edition of the Southeast Asian Games will be held in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.Jad Adrian Washif for the IAAF

Thailand dominated the athletics at the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, winning 17 of the 46 gold medals on offer during the six days of competition which concluded on Friday (12).

Double gold for Cray and Londa at Southeast Asian Games

There was no world record, or even an improvement on his own Asian record, for Mutaz Barshim and he had to be content with just adding the Asian Games record to his ever-growing list of accolades, but there was no doubt that the Qatari high jumper was the star of the show on the third day of the athletics programme in the South Korean city of Inchon on Monday (29).Barshim, in his 15th and probably last competition of 2014, had spoken before the event of hoping he was able to make an attempt on Javier Sotomayor’s long standing world record of 2.45m, but the Asian record-holder at 2.43m had to settle for retaining his Asian Games title at 2.35m.Five men were still in the competition as the bar was raised to 2.29m but only Barshim and Chian’s Zhang Guowei – partners in the Asia-Pacific team at the recent IAAF Continental Cup – cleared, leaving Barshim’s younger brother Muamer to take the bronze medal on countback as he had a flawless record up to and including 2.25m.The elder Barshim, jumping first, then threw down the gauntlet and went straight over the next height of 2.33m, equalling the Games record held since 1982 by China’s former world record-holder Zhu Jianhua.However, Zhang stayed in the contest by getting over 2.33m as well, just one centimetre under his personal best, on his third attempt.Barshim continued to control the competition by making the Games record his own with a first-time clearance at 2.35m, which proved to be a height too far for Zhang.Sensing, perhaps, that he had run out of steam, Barshim then had the bar moved up to 2.40m rather than an Asian or world record height but after two failures he decided to call it a day and, most likely, a year.There was more success for Qatar as Mohamed Al-Garni came out on top of a west Asian battle with Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi in the men’s 1500m to add a second title to the one he won over 5000m on Saturday.Al-Garni proved the stronger finisher down the home straight and won in 3:40.23 to Ramzi’s 3:40.95.The final event on the track to be decided was the men’s 3000m steeplechase and it had the same outcome at the sharp end as the 1500m concluded an hour earlier, with Qatar’s Abubaker Ali Kamal winning comfortably in 8:28.72 while Bahrain’s 2010 champion Tarek Mubarek Taher was a distant second, more than 10 seconds adrift in 8:39.62.The women’s 1500m was run as a straight final despite 16 women declaring but the congestion caused no problems for Maryam Yusuf Jamal. Bahrain’s two-time former world champion made up for her male team-mates coming up short and notched up her third successive Games gold medal over the distance.Jamal clocked 4:09.90, winning the battle for the line against her compatriot Mimi Belete, who was second in 4:11.03.Londa goes longer Indonesia’s Maria Natalia Londa got her country’s first Asian Games athletics gold medal since 1998 when she equalled her national record and grabbed the title with 6.55m in the final round of the women’s long jump.Londa was lying down in eighth place after three rounds and only just qualified for three additional jumps, but finally found her rhythm and reached 6.40m in the fourth round. However, she was still lying second to Vietnam’s Thi Thu Thao Bui, who had jumped 6.44m one round earlier, before pulling out all the stops and becoming her nation’s first ever field event winner at the Asian Games.Bui tried to respond with the last jump of the competition but had to settle for silver after only making a mark in the sand at 6.33m.Behind the leading pair, no fewer than three women jumped 6.34m but the bronze went to China’s Jiang Yanfei by virtue of having the better second-best jump.India’s Seema Antil followed up her silver medal at the recent Commonwealth Games with her first major international title when she took the women’s discus with her fourth-round throw of 61.03m.The expected challenge from the Chinese throwers never materialised: Lu Xiaoxin and Tan Jian were second and third with 59.35m and 59.03m respectively.Uzbekistan’s Yekaterina Voronina overcame a first-day deficit of 184 points with wins in the final two events of the heptathlon on the second day to take the gold medal with a personal best of 5912 points.China’s Wang Qingling had led overnight with 3579 points and increased her advantage to 215 points over her Uzbek rival when she leapt 6.13m in the long jump, 10 centimetres better than Voronina.However, everything changed during the javelin, Wang’s worst event, while the 22-year-old Voronina is a converted thrower and has competed in the event at the IAAF World Youth Championships.Voronina launched her implement out to the outstanding distance of 49.53m while Wang could only reach a rather modest 37.12m. The Uzbek athlete, the 2013 Asian Championships silver medallist, found herself with a 24-point advantage going into the 800m and, determined not to relinquish the gold medal, gritted her teeth to win over two laps of the track in 2:21.21 with Wang coming home just over two seconds adrift.Wang took the silver medal with 5856 points, just 56 behind Voronina, with the latter’s compatriot Yuliya Tarasova taking the bronze with 5482.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

There was no world record, or even an improvement on his own Asian record, for Mutaz Barshim and he had to be content with just adding the Asian Games record to his ever-growing list of accolades, but there was no doubt that the Qatari high jumper was the star of the show on the third day of the athletics programme in the South Korean city of Inchon on Monday (29).

Barshim battles tiredness but still triumphs with Asian Games record in Inchon

Thailand dominated the athletics events at the 27th edition of the South East Asian (SEA) Games, which ended&nbsp;on Thursday (19) after five days of competition in the city of Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.There were no Asian records, but there were a plethora of other high-class marks, including eight Games records, six SEA records, five SEA junior records and 35 national records.The man who took home the biggest haul of medals was Thai sprinter Jirapong Meenapra. The-20-year-old from Suratthani arrived at the Games as a SEA leader in the 100m and 200m.Before focusing on his individual events, he ran a crucial third leg in the 4x100m relay. With some excellent baton exchanges, Thailand secured the gold medal in 39.75. Singapore finished a very close second in 39.79. &nbsp;In the 100m final, Meenapra had to work hard after a sluggish start but he quickly recovered to win in 10.48 (0.7m/s), ahead of Indonesia’s Iswandi, who took the silver in 10.51."I was in lane five and was sandwiched by Indonesian runners in lane four and lane six, and that made me feel uncomfortable but I managed to win," said Meenapra, who celebrated the victory by imitating Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's trademark 'to di world' pose. He later added the 200m title, winning comfortably in 21.29 into a slight breeze.Thailand’s Wassanee Winatho successfully defended her Asian heptathlon title in July, and added her fifth consecutive SEA Games gold medal when she tallied 5556 points over the first two days of the athletics events.Winatho is also an accomplished hurdler but a day later, on Tuesday, she had to work hard to defend her 400m hurdles title in a neck-and-neck battle with Vietnam’s Quach Thi Lan, but won in 58.85 with her rival second in 58.93.The multi-talented Thai athlete now has a total of 13 SEA Games gold medals to her name. Only Myanmar’s Jennifer Tin Lay and the Philippine’s Elma Muros-Posadas have more with 15 each.Vietnam’s Asian Games and Asian Championships medallist Vu Thi Huong ruled the women’s sprints once more.In the 100m, she pulled away from the field from the halfway point before winning comfortably in 11.59 (-0.2m/s) and then won the 200m in 23.55 (0.1m/s).Myanmar’s Phyu War Thet gave the hosts plenty to cheer by winning the women's 5000m in a national record of 16:06.01 while the diminutive Indonesian runner Triyaningsih, who is only 1.50m tall, took the 10,000m gold medal in 32:34.68, reversing the placings with the local runner after taking the 5000m silver.Londa leaps to jump doubleIn the field events, the best performance came in the women’s triple jump, which saw three women go over 14 metres.Indonesia’s 23-year-old Maria Natalia Londa broke her own national record when she bounded out to 14.17m for the gold medal. In an exciting contest, Thailand’s Two-time SEA Games champion Thitima Muangjan had to settle for the silver medal with 14.16m while Vietnam’s defending champion Tran Hue Hoa took the bronze with 14.12m. Londa then went on to win the long jump as well with an effort of 6.39m.The men’s triple jump was equally impressive. Malaysia’s Muhammad Hakimi Ismail took the lead with a national record of 16.44m on his fourth attempt before Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Hung, whose previous best was 16.41m, replied with an outstanding effort of 16.67m to better the Games record and his own national record.After being spurred on by the home crowd, Myanmar’s Saw Mar Lar Nwe crossed the finish line as the champion of the women’s 20km race walk, clocking a time of 1:35:03 to obliterate her national record by almost seven minutes, as well as setting a Games record. &nbsp;Four other Thai athletes had games to remember, setting both Games and national records.Jamras Rittidet successfully defended his 110m hurdles title for the third consecutive time and improved his own Games record and national record by 0.05 to 13.72 (-0.3m/s).His compatriot Peerachet Jantra followed suit in the javelin with an effort of 76.30m and he was copied by another Thai thrower, Tantipong Phetchaiya, who sent the hammer out to 62.23m.In the women’s discus, Thailand’s Subenrat Insaeng outclassed her rivals by more than 14 metres when recording a Games and national record with her third-round throw of 56.77m.Indonesia’s Dedeh Erawati, now 34, is still going strong in the women’s 100m hurdles. She regained her title after running 13.53 (0.3m/s).Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Lai captured gold medals in the men’s 5000m and 10,000m, with national records of 14:19.35 and 29:44.82 respectively.The Philippine’s Henry Dagmil, who has a best of 7.99m, took home his third long jump title with a fine leap of 7.80m, despite jumping against a strong headwind of -2.1m/s. Thailand's athletics contingent was expecting 14 gold medals but they proudly left Myanmar with a haul of 17 gold, 13 silver and nine bronze. Following Thailand on the medals table was Vietnam with 10 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals.The next SEA Games will be held in Singapore in June 2015.Jad Adrian Washif for the IAAF

Thailand dominated the athletics events at the 27th edition of the South East Asian (SEA) Games in the city of Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on Thursday (19).

Thailand triumph at South East Asian Games

Thailand dominated the athletics events at the 27th edition of the South East Asian (SEA) Games, which ended on Thursday (19) after five days of competition in the city of Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.