Thailand are sending 820 athletes and 353 officials to Kuala Lumpur and hope to retain the overall title they claimed with 95 golds at the 2015 tournament in Singapore.
According to estimates by the country’s sports associations, Thailand will win 109 gold medals in Malaysia.
However, Thai officials believe that the number may not be enough for Thailand to top the medal standings.
“I think we would have to win more than 120 gold medals to become overall champions,” said Thailand’s delegation chief Thana Chaiprasit.
Thai officials and critics say Malaysia have an advantage as they have included a number of sports they are good at and excluded disciplines they had slim chances of winning gold medals in the programme for the KL Games.
“Malaysia are doing everything to win the overall title,” said Charouck Arirachakaran, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand.
The KL tournament even features winter sports – ice hockey (one gold medal), figure skating (two), and short track speed skating (six).
These inclusions may raise eyebrows of those outside the region but for participating countries this is not a surprise as Malaysia are expected to enjoy a gold rush in the events.
Both field and indoor versions of hockey are also in the 2017 Games as the hosts are expected to make a clean sweep of four golds.
Malaysia should also get a lion’s share in squash, a sport they have some world-class players, with nine gold medals up for grabs.
On the other hand, there are only six weight classes in men’s boxing and no women’s boxing.
The hosts are not organising women’s weightlifting apparently because Thailand boast a number of Olympic champions and medallists.
There are 10 divisions in the fighting discipline of taekwondo but Thailand are only allowed to take part in six of them.
There are four men’s sepak takraw events but visiting nations can only participate in three while the hosts can take part in all four.
Thailand are also afraid of biased officiating in several sports such as boxing and taekwondo.
“I have told the boxers to try to secure clear-cut wins to avoid dubious scoring,” said Somchai Poonsawat, technical chief of the Thailand Boxing Association.
Thailand are strong in athletics and aim to take home 16-17 gold medals in 45 events at the 2017 Games.
“At the SEA Games in Malaysia, we should win about the same number of gold medals [17] we won in the previous Games,” said Thailand’s athletics head coach Supavanat Ariyamongkol.
The Thai taekwondo team are sending three male and and an equal number of female fighters to the Games led by 2016 Olympic silver medallist Tawin Hanprab and bronze winner Panipak Wongpattanakit.
However, their three gold-medal target could be affected by their star exponents’ exhaustion as Tawin and Panipak will have to compete at the World University Games in Taiwan just ahead of the SEA Games.
Thailand also hope to take home three gold medals in boxing with Asian Games 64kg champion Wuttichai Masuk leading the six-man squad.
Meanwhile, it’s a huge honour for the Thai contingent that HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana will be competing in equestrian with her horse Prince Charming.
The Princess was a member of the women’s badminton team who won the gold at the 2005 SEA Games and has since switched to equestrian.
She and Prince Charming have taken part in the 2013 SEA Games and 2014 Asian Games.
“The Princess has trained hard. It will be her last event with Prince Charming because the horse is now 17 years old,” said Thailand’s equestrian team manager Vithai Laithomya.
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