Thailand maintain hefty lead over hosts

A massive nine gold medals were up for grabs in the track and field competition Sunday. The Thai athletes ruled the roost with three gold medals, while the Philippines claimed two. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and hosts Myanmar shared one gold apiece.
Sukanya Chomchuendee stole the limelight on Sunday after jumping a new Games record of 4.21m in the women's pole vault event to win the first athletics gold for Thailand.
Brilliant Tantipong Phetchaya was also in devastating form when he set up a new Games mark of 62.23m in the men's hammer throw event.
The Kingdom's third gold came in the women's 400m event when long-striding Treewadee Yongphan stormed home first in 53.106 seconds. Two Vietnamese runners, Thi Lan Quach and Nguyen Thi Oanh, clocked 53.374 and 53.709 seconds to claim silver and bronze medals respectively.
The men's 400m event was won by Filipino Archand Christian Bagsit, who clocked 47.219 seconds.
Thailand's Supanara Sukhassvasti Na Ayudhaya seriously challenged Filipino Henry Dagmil in the men's long jump, but Dagmil fared better to run away with gold after jumping 7.80m, relegating Supanara to the second spot with a leap of 7.71m
Earlier, Saw Mar Lar Nwe handed hosts Myanmar the first gold in track and field after crossing the finish line first with impressive time of 1.35.03 hour in the women's 20km race walk.
Indonesian Hendro Hendro clocked the fastest time of 1.29.41 hour to win the men's 20km race walk.
The men's discus crown went to Malaysian Irfan Shamshuddin after covering a distance of 53.16m. Thailand's Narong Benjaroon picked up silver with a throw of 52.45m.
Singapore made it a one-two finish in the women's shot put when Chinese-born Singaporeans Zhang Guirong and Du Xianhui threw 14.99m and 14.92m to take gold and silver medals respectively.
Thailand's Sawitri Thongchao had to be content with bronze after covering 14.82m. Chinese-born Juthaporn Kasaeyan of Thailand dropped from her best to throw below-par 12.54m to finish fourth place.
Meanwhile, the final day of the pencak silat competition saw a majority of nine gold medals on offer and Thai silat exponents performed well to clinch two gold.
Rewadee Damsri, a rising star from Surat Thani, claimed the first gold in the women's 55-60kg division, while Nanthachai Khansakhon from Satun won it in the men's 50-55kg class.
At the completion of the Games pencak silat competition on Sunday, Thailand's silat squad won 11 medals including two gold and one silver.
Phanu Uthairat, president of the Pencak Silat Association of Thailand, expressed satisfaction over his silat exponents' remarkable success. 
 
"I'm proud of my team. We are returning with a great success from the Myanmar SEA Games. There are only 12 exponents in our silat team, but we won 11 medals,” said Phanu.
“Upon our return, the association will award each gold medallist with Bt200,000 cash incentives, while silver and bronze medallists will respectively receive Bt100,000 and Bt50,000 cash incentives. The amount to be given away to each medallist will be similar to that from the National Sports Development Fund," he added.
In the petanque competition, world champions Phantipha Wongchuvej and Thongsri Thamakord successfully retained their SEA Games title in the women's doubles event, while Wattanachai Sonthung took silver in the men's singles event.
Thai cyclist Chanpeng Nontasin, reigning champion in the 30km road race individual time trial, started well in her title defence on Sunday but could not maintain her good form at the end. A sick Chanpeng finished second place this time after completing the course in 47.03.765 minutes. The gold medal went to Singaporean Chan Siew Kheng Dinah, who clocked the fastest 46.30.125 minutes.
The Thai men's kumite team made history on the last day of the karate-do competition by capturing the team gold medal for Thailand for the first time.
In the weightlifting competition, Thailand's Sukanya Srisurat contested the women's 58kg event to lift the gold medal with a Games record-breaking effort of 225kg.
Pitaya Tibnoke earned the day’s second gold for the Thai weightlifting team by capturing the men's 85kg gold. He lifted new Games records of 151kg and 190kg in the respective snatch and clean and jerk events for a combined 341kg in the Olympic Total.
Thailand maintained their lead with a haul of 42 gold, 36 silver and 38 bronze, leaving hosts Myanmar in a distant second place with 36 gold. Hot in the third place with 35 gold are Vietnam, while Indonesia and Malaysia claimed 31 and 21 gold medals to finish fourth and fifth positions respectively.
 
          Medal Tally
                     G   S   B
Thailand      42  36  38
Myanmar     36  30  33
Vietnam       35  32  40
Indonesia     31  46  42
Malaysia      21  15  37
Singapore    15  12  21
Philippines  10 13  21
Cambodia     4   7  12
Laos              2   5  18
Brunei           1   1   4
Timor-Leste   -   -   1