KL2017: Malaysia sends largest athlete contingent to 29th SEA Games

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will be represented by the largest contingent comprising 844 athletes at the 29th Kuala Lumpur SEA Games scheduled from Aug 19 to 30.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) honourary secretary Datuk Low Beng Choo said the delegation was made up of 469 men and 375 women athletes.
According to athlete participation, Thailand is second with 818 athletes.
"However seen from the overall total, Thailand is the largest group with 447 officers while Malaysia will be sending 390 officers," she said.
For the 29th SEA Games, Thailand has the largest overall contingent with 1,265 people (athletes and officers) followed by Malaysia (1,234) , Indonesia (948), Singapore (840), Philippines (762), Vietnam (684), Laos (293), Cambodia (261), Brunei (172) and Timor Leste (69).

However the contingent for Myanmar will only be finalised today, Low added.
In this regard, she said all contingents would be housed in hotels all over the federal capital apart from dividing athletes according to 11 sport clusters.
The hotels are Hotel Renaissance Kuala Lumpur, the official accommodation for the Malaysian contingent; Hotel Royal Chulan (Brunei); Hotel Sunway Putra (Cambodia and Philippines); Hotel The Royale Chulan Bintang (Indonesia); Hotel Swiss Garden (Laos); Hotel Federal Kuala Lumpur (Myanmar); Hotel Double Tree by Hilton (Singapore); Hotel Istana (Thailand) as well as Hotel Berjaya Times Square (Timor-Leste and Vietnam).
Meanwhile Low said the first gold medal of KL2017 would be from sepak takraw's chinlone event on Aug 16 at Tiitiwangsa Stadium.
"Even though chinlone and archery events will be presenting medals on the same day, but chinlone is expected to finish earlier and first medal awarded will come from the event," she said. — Bernama