Forty-four years ago, Myanmar was still known as Burma and the country ruled the roost at the region's premier sports festival _ the Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games.
UP TO SPEED: The Myanmar sepak takraw, known as ‘chinlone’ locally, team practise ahead of the SEA Games in December.
Former athlete, Jennifer Tin Lay, now 64, remembers well the pressure on her as Myanmar's superstar athlete to secure a gold medal for the host nation.
''It was my responsibility to set the lead for the rest of the team,'' she said, pointing to old photographs of her in her competitive days. ''It was a challenge I accepted with full confidence.''
Jennifer Tin Lay is one of the all-time greats of the games, winning nine consecutive gold medals in the shot-put from 1965-1983 and another six in the discus.
The year 1969 was the second and last time Myanmar hosted the event _ which was renamed the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1977 following the admission of Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia into the sporting federation _ and it topped the medal table with 57 gold ahead of Thailand (32) and Singapore (31).
More than four decades later Myanmar is trying to repeat the feat, well aware that success at the games could be their ''coming out'' party, much as China revelled in the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and India was left red-faced by poor planning for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
For the 27th SEA Games to be staged in Nay Pyi Taw in December, Myanmar has set a target of 100 gold medals, 84 more than it won at the last games in Indonesia in 2011. The majority of the medals were won in dragon boat racing, with the others coming in archery, sepak takraw and martial arts. Myanmar finished 7th on the gold medal table.
GOING FOR GOLD
''We are confident we can get gold medals in dragon boat racing, archery, judo, karate-do, rowing, sepak takraw and taekwondo,'' said Myat Thu Ya Soe, secretary of the National Olympic Committee of Myanmar.
But Tin Lay doesn't share Myat Thu Ya Soe's optimism about Myanmar's prospects at the games, saying Myanmar's long years of political isolation had damaged sports at the grass-roots level.
''It is not possible to buy gold medals from the shop,'' she said.
''It is impossible because we didn't have any 'raw materials' for sports during the long break. By raw materials I mean the human resources to play all the games well. You can't just train an individual to become an athlete in a short period of time. It takes at least two to three years.''
She cited her own disciplines of the shot-put and discus as examples of technical sports which need specialist training.
''Today, no one here knows how to throw the shot-put or discus properly,'' she said.
DAYS OF GLORY: Fifteen-time gold medallist Jennifer Tin Lay reminisces about her time competing in the shot-put and discus events at the SEAP and SEA Games.
Tin Lay said the Myanmar government needed to promote athletics the same way it does football for the country to catch up with its neighbours.
Under former military dictator Ne Win's ''Burmese Way to Socialism'' from 1962-1988 and after the second military coup in 1988, poverty and isolation gradually increased and Myanmar was unable to host the games again.
Tin Lay says that as an athlete in her twenties she faced little hardship in her life.
''In our young days, we didn't have any social or economic problems,'' she said. ''I could manage well on my own with very little salary. I became an athlete because I enjoyed playing sports.
''Nowadays children are just running between school and private tuition and computer games, they have no time to play. Sport fields in the government schools were replaced with food stalls. How can we produce potential athletes?''
FUN AND GAMES
At the 27th SEA Games, 460 gold medals will be up for grabs across 33 sports. But Myanmar has come under fire from other nations _ in particular Singapore and Thailand _ for removing the recognised Olympic sports of tennis and gymnastics from the programme to include 'traditional' sports which critics believe will favour the home athletes.
Maj Gen Jaruek Ar-riratchakarun, vice-president and secretary-general of Thailand's Olympic Committee, said the country's representatives had failed to convince Myanmar at a recent meeting to include tennis and gymnastics in the competition.
''Every single representative from Thailand pushed for this at the meeting but the host country said it's not prepared, neither in terms of athletes nor management,'' he said.
Maj Gen Jaruek said he did not agree with the line-up because few of the sports were included in the Summer Olympics.
''Myanmar chose sports that are not international. These SEA Games will lose their charm,'' Maj Gen Jaruek said.
He added that Myanmar also asked that Thailand send 32 coaches to help train its athletes in sports such as volleyball, futsal and boxing.
According to the latest line-up, eight kinds of traditional sports including vovenum (a Vietnamese martial art) and kempo (a karate-like martial art) will be included among the 33 disciplines. Vovenum and kempo were also included in the 2011 games.
Myat Thu Ya Soe denied that the sports would favour Myanmar, saying no host country could make a unilateral decision on what sports to include.
''We need to take input from all member countries,'' he said.
''We need to give chances to member countries to include their desired games as well. For example, we included kempo for Cambodia and Laos although we don't even have a federation or athletes for that game. They are very good at that game and have the potential to win gold medals.
''As a traditional game, we only requested chinlone under the title of sepak takraw which is actually not our traditional game,'' he said.
''All the martial arts we included are from the Olympic and Asian games category, not from our traditional games.''
Myat Thu Ya Soe acknowledged that the decision to exclude tennis and gymnastics from the games was controversial.
''We decided to exclude those two games because we don't have enough time to build tennis courts and don't have enough of a budget for gymnastics,'' he said.
''On the other hand, Myanmar is very weak at tennis and gymnastics,'' he conceded.
Veteran Myanmar sports journalist Khin Maung Htwe, 82, criticised the decision to exclude the two sports.
''We were the first country to include gymnastics at the 1969 SEAP Games and we won two gold medals,'' he said.
''I have no idea why the government is excluding them this time. It's also a shame to say that we don't have enough tennis courts. There are many tennis courts in Yangon. They may be right if they say there are no tennis courts in Nay Pyi Taw''.
But Myanmar isn't the first country to face criticism over introducing ''favourable'' sports at the SEA Games. Questionable sports introduced by host nations in recent times include petanque, lawn bowls, bridge and para-gliding.
In 2007, hosts Thailand came under fire for introducing new categories of sepak takraw and using a new kind of ball that had only been used previously by their own athletes.LASTING IMPRESSIONS
Myanmar's President Thein Sein proudly announced last month that a deal had been struck with international lenders, mainly Japan, to cancel US$6 billion (179 billion baht) if its foreign debt as reward for the strong commitment to economic reform the country had taken.
In another landmark, Myanmar restructured more than $900 million of debt to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, enabling the two lenders to resume assistance to the country.
The ADB said it planned major investments in road, energy, irrigation and education projects.
By hosting the 2013 SEA Games, how far Myanmar has travelled down the road to development will come under scrutiny for the first time.
''The SEA Games not only represent the image of the host country, it could also create many opportunities for our country,'' said Chit Win Maung, an editorial consultant at the Thamaga weekly journal.
''As we have a lack of basic infrastructure and experience, I'm really concerned that the SEA Games in our country will not be as smooth as those held in other countries,'' he said.
Construction for the games has already thrown up one conflict with residents at Ngwe Saung in the Ayeyarwady Region complaining the 28 hectare site earmarked for the sailing regatta is being built on disputed land.
The complex is being developed by Yangon-based Myint & Associates, whose chief executive officer, U Moe Myint, is president of the Myanmar Yachting Federation, the Myanmar Times reported.
Officials have yet to reveal the full budget for the games, but major building works include a multi-use indoor stadium, a 30,000-seat football stadium and an aquatic centre. A games village to house thousands of athletes will also have to be constructed. One Myanmar MP, U Aye Mauk, said late last year that the parliament had approved a $400 million budget for the games and further funding may be needed.
Myat Thu Ya Soe said that 90% of the outdoor construction and 60% of the indoor construction had been completed.
''We expect to finalise all construction in May,'' he said. He added that the new sports complex being built in Nay Pyi Taw would have long-term benefits for the development of sport in Myanmar.
''We plan to improve the standard of sport which is now far behind neighbouring countries,'' he said. ''We will use the sports complex in Nay Pyi Taw to conduct joint training with other member countries. We can use the sports complex as an international sports camp, then we can do sports exchange programmes there.''
But for Jennifer Tin lay, who know works as physical training teacher at a private school in Yangon, the games will always be first and foremost about competing.
''If they asked me to get involved I'd be ready to volunteer for the sailing,'' she said enthusiastically.