Burma parties as 27th SEA Games opens today

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar—Out of the hosting picture for so long, Burma again opens its doors to the region’s finest athletes when the 27th Southeast Asian Games formally begins on Wednesday at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium here.

A four-hour spectacle of cultural shows, songs, fireworks and dances will begin with the parade of athletes from 11 participating countries in the two-week Games scheduled in this nation’s capital and in three satellite venues—Yangon, Mandalay and the coastal town of Ngwe Saung.

To two-time SEA Games wrestling champion Jason Balabal, garbed in his native Ifugao costume, belongs the honor of carrying the Philippine flag at the head of the national contingent.

Chef de mission Jeff Tamayo and his deputy, Monsour del Rosario, will march behind him.

The delegation from Brunei will enter the 30,000-seat main stadium first followed by Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam and host Burma, the second largest country in the region at 676,578 square kilometers with a population of over 60 million.

Burmese president U Thein Sein, a recent Manila visitor, will then declare the Games open, 44 years after the country last hosted the competition in 1969.

Legendary Burmese archer Maung Wai Lin Tun, receiving the beacon from the last runner in a torch relay, will light the Games cauldron by shooting an arrow into it—an act first seen during the opening of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Philippine Olympic Committee first vice president Joey Romasanta, secretary general Steve Hontiveros, treasurer Julian Camacho and commissioner Jolly Gomez of the Philippine Sports Commission will attend the opening rites.