The Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council met in Jakarta on 31 May 2010 unanimously agreed to award the Myanmar Olympic Committee the right to host the 27th edition of the games.[៤]
Official website of the Olympic Council of Asia also approved the fact that Myanmar will host the 27th Southeast Asian Games in its news launched on 7 June 2010.[៥]ASEAN Football Federation (AFF)'s official website also announced that Myanmar will host the games.[៦] Myanmar had already hosted the Games in 1961 and 1969 respectively in Yangon, the then capital of Myanmar. This will be the third time that Myanmar will host the Southeast Asian Games. Singapore withdrew its hosting rights due to expected delays in the completion of its new national stadium.[៧][៨]
ប្រទេសម្ចាស់ផ្ទះ
Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand have revealed their intentions to host the Games. However, since the latter hosted the 2003, 2005 and 2007 editions, respectively, these countries are ineligible to host this edition.[៩][១០]
By the time that Myanmar will host the games, the country will hold the largest time interval of hosting the games, spanning a time of 44 years.
The official mascot of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games is a couple of owls which are considered lucky charms in Myanmar tradition. The male owl is called Shwe Yoe and female owl is called Ma Moe.[១១]
The opening ceremony was held on 11 December 2013 at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium. It marked the nation's biggest sporting event hosted since 1969. It was lead with pre-launch entertainment and a series of screens beamed a dramatic lights show during the Chinese-backed extravaganza.
Fireworks displays was made upon the entrance of PresidentThein Sein into the stadium. The theme song, "Colourful Garden" was performed during the flag-raising ceremony after performances made by 12,000 school children and the Myanmar Royal Auspicious Orchestra. Chairman of the 27th SEA Games Organizing Committee, Vice PresidentNyan Tun declared the Games open with another explosion of colorful fireworks that lit up the night. Torch relay was passed through the hands of six former Myanmar athletes before Aye Myint Kyu, the Union Minister for Culture, handed it to a Burmese archer where he lit up the Games cauldron by shooting an arrow into it.
Myanmar will host 37 sports, less than the number of sport in 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.[៤] Organizers did not nominate the sports of beach volleyball and dancesports, because they considered those uniforms unsuitable for Burmese women.[១៣] Tennis and Gymnastics, are Olympic sports not to be played in December. In this edition of the Games, floorball is also contested as a demonstration sport.[១៤] The following sports below were calendared for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.
¹ – not an official Olympic Sport.
² – sport played only in the SEAG.
³ – not a traditional Olympic nor SEAG Sport and introduced only by the host country.
° – a former official Olympic Sport, not applied in previous host countries and was introduced only by the host country.
ʰ- sport not played in the previous edition and was reintroduced by the host country.
Myanmar will award total 1557 medals; 460 golds, 460 silvers and 637 bronzes to athletes. Athletics awarded 46 gold medals with maximum ones in this year's SEA Games.
The inclusion of Chinlone, an indigenous traditional Burmese sport is not sitting well with many nations and the exclusion of Olympic disciplines sports like gymnastics and tennis infuriated quite a few competing nations, and has became one of the controversial issues heading before the 27th Southeast Asian Games.[៣៥]
The host nation also include Sittuyin, a traditional Burmese chess, as a traditional chess number along with common chess competition number. Other competing nations are not familiar with this traditional Burmese chess.[៣៥]
Due to the reduction of a number of Olympic sports and addition of non-Olympic sports and sports wherein the host country excels, the Philippines decided to send only its top athletes instead of a full-house delegation as in the previous games. The Philippines will be sending 208 athletes only, the smallest delegation since the 1999 Brunei SEA Games, which its smallest delegation in 14 years.[៣៥]
Controversial decision
The 100m freestyle swimming event for women which was held on December 12 was restarted after Thailand protested and appealed for a re-swim. Thailand claimed that its swimmer participating in the sporting event stopped in the middle of the event after hearing the second horn which signaled a false start. The other swimmers did not stop and the race was not interrupted. Pinky Brosas, national head coach of the Philippine national swimming team criticized the organizers for not interrupting the race and noted that the officials did not put down the 50m flag.[៣៦][៣៧]
In the kata team event for women, the Vietnamese team has protested the decision of the jurors, which gave the gold medal to the host team (Myamnar). Subsequently, the juror committee had to have a meeting and admitted their mistakes. They released an apology to Vietnamese women kata team for their faults but the decision of juror could not be changed. Vietnamese media called this incident as a "gold medal robbery", which regularly occurs within SEA Games.[៣៨]
In the Pencak Silat Men's 55–60 kg, the committee didn't give the gold medal that had to be given to Indonesia after Mohammad Adhan won the final against Ye Kyaw Thu from Myanmar because Myanmar protested the decision of the jurors decision, and even their protest being rejected by the jurors, the committee still keep the medal and instead of cancelling all of Men's 55–60 kg Tarung event result.[៣៩]
In the football event for women, the coach of Myanmar women's national football team has vowed to make an official complaint over the alleged lack of expertise of the Indian referee, Maria Rebello, during the team’s SEA Games defeat on penalties to Thailand.[៤០] Burmese fans were outraged by decisions that disallowed a Burma goal for offside but allowed a contentious goal by Thailand to stand.[៤១]
Alleged racial discrimination in sports
About a day before the games began, the Burmese authorities deselected two Chin athletes who were gold medallists in national events.[៤២]
In addition to the above, a third Chin athlete was deselected a month previously.[៤៣]
