The Southeast Asian region is now set to be swept by thrills and spills of sports action after the 33rd SEA Games were launched in an impressive if not spectacular opening at the crowded Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok on Tuesday evening.
Thailand’s much-criticised preparations for the 2025 Games, the record seventh time the region’s biennial sporting event has taken place in the Kingdom, unfortunately left plenty of skeptical eyes on the opening ceremony.
As things turned out, the curtain-raising performance, unfurled in front of Their Majesties the King and the Queen who presided over the ceremony, was good enough to be deemed a “saving grace” for all parties associated with the Games’ organisation.
Her Majesty Queen Suthida later marched with the Thai national team athletes into the ceremony. The Queen will represent the host country in sailing at the 33rd SEA Games in the keelboat SSL47 event, scheduled for December 15–18 in Pattaya, Chonburi Province, with the goal of securing a gold medal.
Her Majesty Queen Suthida joined the Thai national team at the opening ceremony of the 33rd SEA Games today.
Created under the theme “WE ARE ONE”, emphasising the value of unity, the show comprised five performances, which subtly blended Thai arts and culture with modern technologies.
World-renowned Muay Thai fighter Buakaw Banchamek featured in the penultimate performance, ONE SPIRIT, demonstrating the beauty of the national martial arts before “BamBam” Kunpimook Bhuwakul, a Thai member of K-pop band GOT7, took the stage singing in the last performance called “BLOOMING OF ONE VICTORY”.
Then came the athletes’ parade of all 11 participating countries, starting with the Brunei contingent. As the hosts, Thailand was the last nation to enter the stadium and its delegation was led by Her Majesty the Queen, who will represent the country in the sailing competition at the Games.
The 2024 Olympics medalists, badminton ace Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who clinched men’s singles silver, and female boxer Janjaem Suwannapeng, who won a bronze in Paris, took up the honour as the country’s flag bearers.
The parade was followed by the highlight of the evening, the cauldron lighting, which started with the torch relay featuring three of the country’s prominent athletes. Vareeraya “ST” Sukasem, who at 12 became the country’s youngest Olympian when she competed in the skateboard competition in Paris last year, was the first to start the relay.
She then passed the torch to the 2008 Olympic boxing gold medalist Somjit Jongjohor, who then handed it to two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Panipak “Tennis” Wongpattanakit.
The sophisticated process of cauldron lighting began when Panipak placed the torch on the small-sized cauldron to ignite “the first spark”, which later transformed into a digital flame gradually ascending to light the main digital cauldron structure specifically erected to promote the “Green Games” concept.
The lighting of the cauldron officially marked the beginning of the 33rd edition of the region’s multisport tournament that will run until December 20 in Bangkok and Chon Buri.
There are a total of 50 official sports, three demonstration disciplines (Air Sports, Flying Disc and Tug of War) and one “value-added” sport (mixed martial arts) featuring in the Thai-hosted Games, with 574 gold medals on offer.
Photos by AFP, AP and Reuters
