He said the historic feat confirmed Malaysia as the overall champion of the Games this year.

“I’m pleased to announce that we succeeded in getting the 111 gold medals that we targeted.

“With this, it is confirmed that Malaysia is the overall champion of the SEA Games.

“This achievement marks a glorious historic moment created by all the Malaysian SEA Games athletes,” he said when conveying the good news to the audience at the opening ceremony of the River of Life and Blue Pool projects here today.

Malaysia notched the 111th gold medal at the Games through national track cycling ace Azizulhasni Awang, who is also the world champion in men’s keirin.

There are two more days before the finale of the 29th SEA Games.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin chose Twitter to share the good news when he tweeted “Mission accomplished. #111 done. #KitaJuara”, indicating that Malaysia had become the overall champions.

However, Khairy, who is also the chairman of the Malaysia Organising Committee (Masoc) of the Games, said the fight was not over as Malaysia wanted to surpass 111 gold medals, and create its own record since the inception of the games in 1959.

Malaysia achieved 111 gold medals when hosting the 21st edition of the Games in 2001, when the country also emerged as the overall champions.