Although applauding the admirable performance put in by Thailand’s athletes in the biennial games, he noted that “certain sports associations” in his country were still beset by problems, adding that these should be fixed once they returned home.
“It is normal that the host country would get more (gold medals) following their preparations.
“It was the same when we were the host country, when we also could manage the types of sports and this time they (Malaysia) had better preparations,” he told the media at Government House here today.
Despite coming second behind Malaysia in the overall medal tally and losing the regional crown, the prime minister insisted that he was still happy with his athletes’ excellent performance and for putting up a good effort during the multi-sport games.
“I am happy that we finished in second place even though I wanted them to finish first,” he said.
Prayut’s comments came following a wave of criticism hurled by Thai media and fans against Malaysia over aspects of its hosting of the SEA Games.
Besides criticising the hosts over trivial glitches that occurred during the Games such as the lack of food and transportation for athletes, they also accused Malaysia of displaying unsportsmanlike behaviour in its quest to collect the most gold medals and become the overall champion.
An English newspaper, Bangkok Post, in an article titled “An ugly tradition continues in Malaysia” said emotions were running high among Thai fans and journalists who vented their anger by dubbing the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games as “SEA Kong” or (SEA Cheating).
It also said that head of the Thai contingent to the Games, Thana Chaiprasit, claimed that the officiating of the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games was the worst compared to other SEA Games as well as the Olympic and Asian Games.
He also claimed officials from other countries shared his views.
Despite the harsh views held by the Bangkok Post, another popular English daily, “The Nation” was more introspective in its assessment of Thailand’s performance during the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, choosing to blame the declining quality of its athletes instead.
In a scathing remark aimed at the country’s sports authorities, The Nation in its editorial several days ago, said Thailand had largely failed in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
“At Kuala Lumpur 2017, Thailand largely failed in ‘international sports’. In other words, if regional (traditional) sports performance is removed from the medal table, the Kingdom will still trail Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam,” it said.
The inclusion of traditional sports in the SEA Games, said the newspaper, would have been used as an excuse by Thailand if it lost its regional domination to Malaysia, but was an argument it could not keep using anymore.