As much as we don't want a participating country in the 30th Southeast Asian Games go home empty-handed, Timor Leste wouldn't want a medal out of fake news.
A day after Filipinos rooting for an East Timor athlete to land in the podium for once in the multi-sport event celebrated the news that the nation has already captured a silver medal in taekwondo, there came a more sobering reality.
It's fake news.
Upon checking the official SEA Games website, app, and other credible sources, we regret to inform you that Timor Leste has yet to crack the win column — even in the sport that got the struggling country three bronze medals in 2017. (It did spoil the Azkals' chances to secure a medal in football on Wednesday.)
People have been commenting the good yet fake news in SPIN.ph's medal tallies like this one below:
According to one of the Facebook users that got fooled, a basketball meme page was responsible for the misleading post, which has since been taken down.
Surely, Timor Leste wants that first medal so bad, but it also wants to do it fair and square.
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