The significance of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for Thai athletes varies from person to person. For Thai-American Trecia Roberts, a former national 100m hurdles star-turned-coach, it launched her dream to have Thai athletics represented at the Olympics — a tribute to the nation her mother is from. It was at the 1999 SEA Games in Brunei where she made her debut in the Thai national colours and where she clinched gold and silver medals. She was later dubbed the female Tiger Woods of Thai athletics. In her decade-long stint with the national athletics team, she became the first Thai athlete t…