Thailand enjoyed a gold-laden Monday capped by victory in the women's team badminton but Indonesia kept their comfortable lead at the top of medals table with another dynamic display that yielded 14 wins. The hosts had won 58 golds late Monday boosting their total medal haul to 141, with Thailand - table-toppers in the 2009 Games - unable to peg them back so far despite changing gears after an unimpressive opening.
In what now looks like a two-horse race, the Thais have 35 gold medals and 97 podium finishes overall, after their women's badminton team stunned a rowdy crowd with a gruelling four-and-half-hour victory over the hosts. Sixteen-year-old Ratchanok Inthanon was at the heart of the sensational 1-3 win, beating the fancied Adriyanti Firdasari by a slender 12-21, 21-19, 19-21 in the second singles match to tee-up the team victory.
The visitors also enjoyed a good day in track and field events with Tantipong Phetchai taking the hammer final with a 61.46 metre effort - nearly 1.5m beyond second place - while Laphassaporn Tawon claimed the women's 200m.
It put them a nose ahead of the hosts in the athletics charts with nine golds. But the Thais have their work cut out to eclipse Indonesia, after the home athletes continued their fine run with a sackful of golds as they target finishing with most medals at the Games for the first time since 1997. Vietnam fell further behind, their early momentum stalling to leave them on 27 golds, while Singapore held steady in fourth place in the medals table with a typical strong showing in the swimming pool helping them to 65 medals. Team Singapore was boosted Monday with reports saying that 31 athletes hit by food poisoning were recovering well at the Palembang Games village.
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