Myanmar athletes have promoted the country's image in the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which concluded successfully on Sunday, by harvesting a number of medals, official media commented in an editorial Monday.

"With the honor of hosting the Games that returned to the country after a 44-year long wait, Myanmar successfully hosted the biggest regional sporting event. Especially, Myanmar showed its kind hospitality throughout the games," the editorial of the New Light of Myanmar said.

"Although Myanmar football has not reached so far as expected, Myanmar was on the track of victory in the remaining events to a certain extent," the editorial noted, citing that Myanmar was listed in the top five countries together with Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The editorial underlined that hosting the SEA Games can revitalize the standard of Myanmar sports, adding that although Myanmar was unable to top the medal tally, it met with success to a certain extent.

Admitting the weakness in swimming and athletics competitions, in which the most number of medals were presented, the editorial called for making necessary preparation with these events to be able to seek more success in the next SEA Games.

The 27th Southeast Asia Games closed in Nay Pyi Taw's Wunna Theikdi Stadium Sunday evening with host Myanmar collecting 86 out of the 460 golds available for a total of 233 medals.

Athletes from 11 nations compete in the biggest biennial tournament that stages multi-sports in four different places of Myanmar.

Myanmar athletes scored victories in many of the traditional sports such as chinlone, traditional boat race while also sweeping in sports such as muay, sepaktakraw, taekwondo, and others.

The hosts also won golds in the drama-filled wushu and vovinam competitions, but their under-23 football team spoiled the passion of the nation with its leaving in the group-stage.

The gold most craved by the home fans was in the under-23 football, but instead they faced heartbreak as Indonesia took the opportunity from Myanmar to go to semi-final.

Singapore will next host the 28th SEA Games in 2015. Endi

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