Nilar San from the women’s track and field team trains at Aung San Stadium last week.

THE Myanmar Track and Field Federation (MTFF) will send 14 athletes to next month’s SEA Games and is hoping to grab at least two gold medals, federation general secretary U Mya Than Htike said earlier this month.

The athletes have been preparing for the games since March 2008 and U Mya Than Htike said training performances indicated many athletes had a chance of winning at least a bronze medal.

“We did not hire any foreign coaches but the local coaches have trained these athletes as much as they can,” U Mya Than Htike said.

“The federation is hoping to grab two gold medals; one from Nilar San, who will take part in women’s marathon, and another from K Khine Lwin, Yin Yin Khine, Le Le Win and Aye Aye Than, who will compete in the women’s 4x100 metres relay event,” he added.

“Their training records are better than the gold medalists at the last SEA Games in Thailand but we have to remember that our opponents may also have improved since then.”

The squad is expecting Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand to pose the biggest threat in the men’s events and Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in the women’s.

On the men’s side, Soe Min Thu will take part in the marathon, Kyaw Lwan Aung will compete in the 800m, Tun Tun Lin in the pole vault and Kyi Min Soe and Aung Thuya will both take part in the 5000m and 10,000m events.

The nine female athletes include: Nilar San and Thida Cho (marathon), K Khine Lwin (200m, 400m and 4x100m relay), Yin Yin Khine (400m and 4x100m relay), Le Le Win (4x100m relay), Saw Malar Nwe and K Khine Myo Tun (20 kilometre walk), Than Toe Khin Myo Aung (800m and 1500m) and Aye Aye Than (4x100m relay).

Despite the positive outlook for next month’s Games, U Mya Than Htike said track and field in Myanmar was suffering from a lack of talented youngsters.

“We have a lack of young athletes and are still trying to implement a youth development program,” U Mya Than Htike said. “If you look at our squad, for example, we have athletes like K Khine Lwin, who has competed at the SEA Games since 2003. Some of our athletes are getting pretty old.”

“In the past, Myanmar’s track and field team could dominate the SEA Games. We can’t perform like this today but we will do our best in coming SEA Games and are hoping to get good results,” said U Mya Than Htike.

At the 24th SEA Games in Thailand in December 2007, Myanmar’s track and field team won four silver and five bronze medals.