Para Games: Tales of inspiration as curtain falls in Singapore

This photo taken on December 8, 2015 shows Singaporean table tennis para athlete Jason Chee eyeing a shot against Thailand’s Natthawut Thinathet during the men’s singles table tennis final at the 8th ASEAN Para Games in Singapore. Singapore brings down the curtain on Southeast Asia’s biggest ever para sports event on December 9 after a week of competition celebrating the achievements and potential of people with disabilities. Organisers said this year’s ASEAN Para Games is the biggest to date with some 1,200 athletes from ten countries participating across 15 sports. Chee, 31, provided one of the many tales of inspiration after he overcame a horrific naval accident to win gold in the men’s team table tennis. AFP PHOTO / STEFANUS IAN / AFP / STEFANUS IAN

Singapore brings down the curtain on Southeast Asia’s biggest ever para sports event on Wednesday after a week of competition celebrating the achievements and potential of people with disabilities.

Football superstar David Beckham was among the spectators to be “inspired” as 1,200 athletes from 10 countries competed out in 15 sports at the ASEAN Para Games over the past week.

Singapore pulled out all the stops, housing the athletes at a luxury hotel in the city center and hosting competition at the new, $1 billion Sports Hub complex.

Singaporean’s Jason Chee, 31, provided one of the many tales of inspiration after he overcame a horrific naval accident to win gold in the men’s team table tennis.

Chee’s success comes just three years after he lost both legs, his left arm and three fingers on his right hand after being caught between a berthing rope and motorized winch on a navy vessel.

Earlier Thai teenager Anchaya Ketkeaw, who after being born with a deformed right hand was bullied in school and told she would amount to nothing, won seven gold medals.

“In Thailand, people tend to look down on the disabled. But my mother always told me not to be ashamed of my disability,” the Straits Times quoted her as saying.

Singaporean swimmer Yip Pin Xiu, 23, broke the world record in the women’s 50m backstroke, clocking 1min 1.61sec to lower the mark set by China’s Feng Yazhu at the London Paralympics.

Beckham watched Singapore play Thailand at football on Sunday and posted a video on his Instagram with the caption: “The level of skill in this game is incredible.”

“It is inspiring to see athletes pursue their passion with such great desire,” added the former England captain.

The UN’s regional development arm ESCAP said on its website that one in six people in the Asia-Pacific region — about 650 million people — has some form of disability and tended to be “unseen, unheard and uncounted”.

The athletes traveled to the Games venue on Singapore’s metro train system to allow them to interact with the public and raise their visibility.

Wheelchair-bound hospital administrator Leslie Chia, 48, a spectator, was among those who said the event had shone a light on people with disabilities.

“It has created a lot of awareness. Awareness is one thing, I think it’s very inspiring. It has really shown people that nothing is impossible,” she told AFP.

Ahead of the closing ceremony, Thailand topped the medals table with 94 golds, ahead of Indonesia (81) and Malaysia (52).

The ASEAN Para Games is now in its eighth edition after starting in 2001 in Malaysia, when about 400 athletes took part.