SEA Games athletes will fight for these medals

by Asia One04 May 2015 Last updated at 15:27 PM

VTV.vn - The colourful SEA Games logo is on the front of the medals, with the Sports Hub dominating the back, where the name of the event is also engraved.

It is slightly wider than the usual drinks coaster, and weighs roughly the same as the average smartphone in your pocket.

But it is an item thousands of athletes are prepared to shed blood, sweat and tears for, when the 28th South-east Asia (SEA) Games hits town in June.

At a press conference at the Black Box auditorium at the Sports Hub yesterday, the Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (Singsoc) unveiled the medals that will be given out to the top three athletes in each of the 402 events that will be contested from June 5 to 16.

Measuring 8cm in diameter and weighing 183gm, a total of 1,327 medals will be up for grabs, if the 402 events across the 36 sports at the Games are not trimmed.

More than 50 drafts were created before the final look of the medal was decided upon, revealed designer Joys Tan.

The colourful Games logo is on the front, with the image of the iconic Sports Hub dominating the back of the medal, where the name of the event will also be engraved.

The $1.33m Sports Hub may have opened its doors only last June, but it will have a huge presence at the Games, on the sports front and in the aesthetic sense.

GLAMOUR EVENTS

The facility will host 10 sports, including the glamour events of track and field, swimming and the football final.

While the medals will bear its facade, the trays that they will be presented on will resemble the National Stadium - the crown jewel of the Sports Hub.

Not only elite athletes will get their hands on medals, more than 40,000 "Supporters' Medallions" - a slightly smaller replica of the SEA Games gold medal - will also be given to those who attend the closing ceremony on June 16.

Said Singsoc chairman Lim Teck Yin: "The Supporters' Medallion is a very important idea, because the people who are going to come to the (closing ceremony) party are likely to be people who have been following the Games.

"It's very unlikely that if you've not watched a single sport or been down to a single venue, that you'd buy a ticket to be there at the final party.

"So, we wanted to acknowledge everyone who walked this journey with us all the way to the closing day, by providing this replica medal... that's what's they are intended for."

All tickets for the opening ceremony at the National Stadium on June 5 have been sold and 75 per cent of tickets for the closing ceremony have already been snapped up.

Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten and local acts The Sam Willows, Tabitha Nauser and Daphne Khoo are some of the artistes who will perform at the closing ceremony.

Beatrice Chia-Richmond, the creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies, drew inspiration from closing ceremonies at last year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar.

She said: "The difference between the opening and closing ceremonies is that the opening is a show where performers come in and do a lot of precise movements, whereas the closing ceremony is a lot more spontaneous.

"What was very clear to me was that (at the closing ceremony) people just want to have a good time.

"They don't want to sit in their seats a long time. They want to get up, take selfies, exchange phone numbers, spray something at one another, throw powder... They just want to let their hair down."

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