SINGAPORE — Myanmar, the host nation of the previous SEA Games, was the first of the 11 teams competing at this year’s biennial games to arrive yesterday, as the Team Welcome Ceremony officially started outside Kallang Wave Mall with a series of performances by percussion and dance groups, followed by an exchange of mementoes and a flag-raising ceremony.

Among the Myanmar contingent was chef de mission Thet Lwin, who said his nation would be gunning for gold in at least three sports: Rowing, traditional boat race, and sepak takraw.

Myanmar, which is fielding 390 athletes and 186 officials at the Games, finished second in the medal standings at the 2013 edition, with 86 gold, 62 silver and 85 bronze medals. (Thailand finished first, while Vietnam finished third.) However, Thet was coy on making any gold-medal predictions.

“We will try to finish in any position between first and fifth. We don’t want to target any gold medals, but we will try. Rowing, traditional boat race and chinlone (sepak takraw) are potential gold-medal sports for us,” said Thet, who is leading his nation’s athletes at the SEA Games for the second time.

The other nine nations participating in this year’s competitions — Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam — will be welcomed today at the Team Welcome Ceremony from 8am to 7pm.

Thet added that considerable progress had been achieved by Myanmar’s athletes since the 2013 Games, and he expects many fans to turn up in a show of support.

“Everything has improved and government support has been good,” he said. “The fan support is also great and we are expecting a lot of fans to come down and support their nation’s athletes.”