BANGKOK: National women’s hammer throw ace Grace Wong Xiu Mei produced an outstanding performance en route to winning the gold medal and smashing the Games record four consecutive times at the SEA Games Thailand 2025 here on Friday.
Grace began the competition at the Suphachalasai Stadium in style, with a throw of 63.34 metres (m) to erase her own Games record of 61.87m set at the 2023 edition in Cambodia.
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The Sarawak-born Grace then smashed the newly-set Games record – and her national record of 63.53m set at the Malaysian Athletics Championships in Kangar in August – with a throw of 63.83m in her second attempt.
Her third attempt produced another Games – and national – record of 65.09m, before she let fly a throw of 65.41m to erase both records again and confirm her hold on the gold medal.
She then recorded distances of 64.01m and 64.42m in her final two throws, allowing her to set four Games records and three national marks in less than an hour of competition, and to present the national athletics camp with the first gold medal here.
Thailand settled for silver and bronze through Koomphon Mingkamon (60.74m) and Kaewasuksri Sawitree (56.27m).
For the record, this is Grace’s fourth hammer gold in the SEA Games, with her previous achievements coming in the 2017 (Kuala Lumpur), 2021 (Vietnam) and 2023 (Cambodia) editions.
The national track and field camp had more reason to cheer in the evening session when Nani Shahirah Maryata delivered a surprise gold medal for Malaysia in the women’s shot put event.
She managed a solid throw of 16.36 metres to both clinch gold and break her own national record of 15.39m which she achieved at the Perlis Super Series last year.
Thailand’s Areerat Intadis claimed silver on 16.04m while Vietnam’s Huyen Kim Thi (15.92m) completed the podium at the Suphachalasai National Stadium.
