Sunday Stamps 023: SEA Games on Thai stamp

I am sharing this stamp from Thailand to commemorate the just-concluded 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 11-22 November this year.

Athletics is one of the official sports events since the  beginning of SEA Games in 1959. Here shows the men's pole vaulting event.

The SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event with participants from the 11 SEA nations, namely: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, East Timor, Thailand, and Vietnam. The first games was held in Bangkok in 1959 when it was still known as Southeast Asian Peninsular Games was participated in by officials and athletes from Thailand, Malaya (now Malaysia), Singapore, South Vietnam, and Laos competing in 12 sports.

This year's host, Indonesia, is its fourth time to host the SEA Games. It last hosted the event in 1997. The last SEA Games was held in Vientiane, Laos - the first time it ever held the games - at the same time commemorating the Games 50 years.

I remember the excitement I had watching the live broadcasts on television when I was younger.  The Philippines in those days was within the top five rank, excelling mostly in basketball, boxing, and athletics, to name a few. I don't know what happened to Philippine sports now. Looking at the rankings in this year's SEA Games, we are on the 6th place, overtaken by a huge distance by Vietnam.

Next year's host will be Myanmar. That could be interesting.
More about the SEA Games hosted by Indonesia here, and SEA Games in general here.

Update: This is how the stamp should look like:
 

Thanks to Bob Scotney for drawing my attention.