BANGKOK, Nov 30: The stars of the Southeast Asian Games will not be found on the track or in the pool like most multi-sports games. Most attention here is likely to be on the boxing ring, badminton court and weightlifting hall.

The 24th SEA Games open Wednesday in the northeastern Thailand city of Nakhon Ratchasima — commonly known as Korat — which has a population of about 150,000 and is three hours from Bangkok.

With the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing beckoning, most attention in Korat will be on those harboring genuine Olympic medal hopes.

The long-standing rivalry between the Thais and the Filipinos in the boxing ring, and the Malaysians and Indonesians in badminton will be renewed, while taekwondo and weightlifting will also boast competitors eyeing Olympic gold.

It is the sixth time Thailand has hosted the SEA Games, which is a biannual event contested between Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, East Timor and Brunei-Darrusalam.

The first SEA Games in 1959 had 12 sports and 657 athletes, but has since ballooned to 45 events with 6,541 athletes for the 2007 event.

Along with the standard multi-event disciplines such as athletics, swimming, cycling and soccer, there are the likes of lawn bowls, billiards, bodybuilding, petanque and rugby.

Disciplines peculiar to the region are also included, such as dragon boat racing, sepak takraw — a blend of volleyball and soccer — the martial arts of Muay Thai, Wushu, Pencak Silat and Kempo, and even the traditional Asian board game Go.

There will be 485 gold medals contested. Thailand is targeting 150 gold medals, with athletics, shooting, boxing and Muay Thai all expected to deliver double-figure hauls for the hosts. It won 87 golds at the 2005 Games.

However those estimates may have to be scaled down marginally after the Thai team underperformed in the initial stages of the shooting events, which were staged prior to the Games proper in order to avoid a clash with the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait.—AP