KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s fourth-place finish at the Thailand 2025 Sea Games with 57 gold medals should be viewed more critically and not judged purely by medal numbers, according to sports analyst Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli.
Pekan said while the national contingent deserved credit for finishing ahead of Singapore, which collected 52 gold medals and for surpassing the initial target with a total haul of 231 medals, the benchmark itself was not sufficiently demanding.
"Overall, I am not surprised by the number of medals obtained because the target set before the games began was not dynamic and not progressive," he said.
The senior lecturer at UiTM’s Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation noted that the target failed to take into account key factors, including the increase in the number of sports and medals contested at the Thailand Games.
Comparing performances with previous editions, Pekan said Malaysia’s showing in Thailand was an improvement over the Vietnam 2021 and Cambodia 2023 Sea Games, but still fell short of being the country’s best performance outside Kuala Lumpur.
He cited the 2007 Sea Games in Korat as a more meaningful achievement, when Malaysia finished as overall runners-up with 68 gold medals, despite only 477 gold medals being contested across 43 sports.
"Our contingent was also much smaller then, comprising 439 athletes, compared with this edition, where 574 gold medals were offered across 50 sports and Malaysia sent a contingent nearly three times larger,” he said.
"With that context, finishing fourth with 57 gold medals this time more accurately reflects that it is actually a moderate achievement, we cannot compare using an apple-to-apple basis," he said.
From a development standpoint, Pekan said the results in Thailand could not be directly attributed to the success of long-term programmes, except in sports such as sepak takraw, Muay Thai and track cycling, which demonstrated sustained performance.
However, he described performances in key medal-producing sports such as athletics and swimming as disappointing and lacking clear improvement.
"I am not sure which programmes are truly effective in improving performance in these sports," he said.
Pekan also warned against treating medal counts as a definitive indicator of progress, pointing to external factors such as the increase in events, Malaysia’s largest-ever contingent of nearly 1,200 athletes, participation of top athletes across most sports and Cambodia’s late withdrawal, which affected medal distribution.
He added that nearly half of Malaysia’s bronze medals were won through automatic shared formats without playoff matches, unlike the Asian Games and Olympic Games, where bronze medal matches are compulsory.
If all bronze medals had been fully contested, he said Malaysia’s medal tally could have been lower.
Beyond results, Pekan stressed that the most pressing challenge for the national contingent lay in issues of attitude and emotional control among athletes and officials, noting that the fighting spirit shown at times did not match athletes’ reputations or rankings compared with regional competitors, affecting Malaysia’s sporting image in Southeast Asia.