LONG WAIT Koh’s next attempt at ending his gold nightmare will be in 2011 in Indonesia.

CALL it bad luck.

Blame it on the winds.

Whatever the reason, Laser sailor Koh Seng Leong will have to wait a little longer for his first SEA Games gold medal.

Koh has had no golden success at the SEA Games, after two attempts in the past 10 years.

I stumbled upon him as he sat in the Singapore tent after Friday's final race at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club here in Pattaya, Thailand.

Koh, 24, shook his head as a woeful grin creased his weather-beaten face.

As a 14-year-old in 1997, he picked up a silver in the Optimist class on his SEA Games debut.

Exactly 10 years later, at the 24th edition of the Games here, he collected silver again.

His conqueror was Malaysia's Muhamad Mohd Rormzi, while Thailand's Manat Phothong took the bronze.

"My mind is a blank now," said the Asia Games Laser Radial silver medallist.

"It was really disappointing. I led three times during the regatta, only to have the Malaysian overtake me.

"Things didn't seem to go my way. I had rubbish stuck under my boat, the wind suddenly died on me."

"But I don't think it's bad luck. Why bring luck into it? It's just the way things are and you have to accept them," he consoled himself.

After his Jakarta silver in 1997, the sport did not feature in the 1999 and 2003 SEA Games, while Koh missed the 2001 event because of his A-Level examinations.

In 2005, a freak accident left him with two fractured fingers, a dislocated thumb and severed nerves in his left hand after a car door swung open, hitting him as he was about to stop his motorbike at a traffic junction.

He recovered to win silver at last year's Asiad, and Koh was hopeful of ending his SEA Games duck here.

But Rormzi clinched the gold with 14 points after winning seven of the 12 races, while Koh, who had four firsts, had to settle for silver with 15 points.

He heads home on Sunday for a short break, before returning to Melbourne at the end of this month to prepare for the Laser World Championship in Terrigal, Australia, in February — his last chance to qualify for next year's Beijing Olympics.

While qualifying for the Olympics is his biggest priority, nabbing that elusive SEA Games gold medal will be at the back of his mind.

Sailing is unlikely to feature at the 2009 SEA Games in landlocked Laos, and the next opportunity is likely to blow his way again in 2011 in Indonesia.

"I will wait," Koh said.

"Two years, if not, then four. I still want that SEA Games gold."

Read more stories on the 24th SEA Games here.