SEA Games 2025: Eight of the best and worst moments

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Summary

• Indonesian and Thai weightlifters set five world records, defying expectations at the SEA Games, with Rizki Juniansyah and Weeraphon Wichuma among the record-breakers.
• Singapores young athletes, including Maximilian Maeder, Izaac Quek, and Julia Yeo, achieved remarkable success, signaling a promising future for Singapore sports.
• The Games were marred by controversies, including officiating disputes in pencak silat and muay thai, and a lifetime ban for a Thai e-sports player.

AI generated

BANGKOK – As the 33rd SEA Games drew to a close on Dec 20, The Straits Times’ reporting team on the ground David Lee, Deepanraj Ganesan, Melvyn Teoh, Gavin Foo and Brian Teo relived the highs and lows of the action in Thailand. Here are ST’s picks for the event’s moments to remember.

National records, and occasionally Asian marks, are broken at the SEA Games. Though at what is sometimes called the “kampung Games”, five world records are certainly not on the bingo card.

But the weightlifters did not get the memo as Indonesia’s Rizki Juniansyah set two world records with a clean-and-jerk of 205kg and his 365kg total in the men’s 79kg category on Dec 15.

The Thais also got in on the act when Paris Olympics silver medalist Weeraphon Wichuma bettered world marks with his clean-and-jerk lift of 195kg and overall 347kg in the men’s 71kg category, while compatriot Theerapong Silachai also set a clean-and-jerk world record of 173kg en route to the men’s 60kg title. Deepanraj Ganesan

For the longest time, no South-east Asian had managed to break the 10-second barrier in the century sprint. Until 19-year-old Thai