Cambodia’s 44-year long wait for Asian Games glory was emphatically
ended this afternoon as taekwondo sensation Sorn Seavmey struck gold in
the women’s under-73kg event at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium in
Incheon, South Korea.
The 19-year-old Cambodian, a SEA Games gold medalist in Myanmar last
year, stormed back from a three-point deficit in the first round to
command the next two and emerge a 7-4 victor of the final against
Fatemeh Rouhani of Iran.
Seavmey will return home on Sunday night with the glorious glow of a
gold medal, Cambodia’s first in its 60-year history of participation at
the quadrennial competition, hanging around her neck.
She can also expect to cash in on the government’s subdecree, which
rewards athletes for success at international sporting competitions.
According to the subdecree, a gold medalist will receive 80 million
riel (US$19,600) from the government. Seavmey is also set to bank
additional sums from official sponsors such as Angkor Beer and
NagaWorld.
Cambodia’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony had earlier showed
scant regard for her quarter-final rival Umida Abullaeva of Uzbekistan’s
imposing record as the 2012 Asian Championships winner and recent
silver medalist at the Nanjing Youth Summer Olympic, in a fight she
dominated start to finish to seal on points 29-7.
With the full-throated chorus of support from the entire Cambodian
contingent spurring her on, Seavmey used her impressive height to score
vital points against Abullaeva, who earlier in the day had struck a
confident note in her 4-0 pre-quarter final win over Feruza Yergeshova
of Kazakhstan.
With a historic podium place guaranteed, Seavmey then faced the
imposing figure of Filipina Kirstie Elaine Alora for a place in the gold
medal match.
Seavmey commanded the first two rounds, jumping to a 6-1 lead. The
Cambodian held on through a nervy last round to secure a 6-5 victory and
avenge her older sister Davin’s loss to Alora in the gold medal match
of the over-73kg women’s event at the 2013 SEA Games.
Sorn Davin was also in the hunt for a medal in Incheon earlier today,
but succumbed to a comprehensive 8-1 points defeat by Iranian Akram
Khodabandeh in their women’s over-73kg quarter-final.
Meanwhile, Cambodia’s remaining male taekwondo athlete, Ban Khemara,
lost 20-8 to Afghanistan’s Abdul Wahab Zazai in their men’s under-54kg
round of 32 clash.
Cambodia’s last medal winning performances came at the 1970 Bangkok
Asian Games when the Kingdom brought home four medals – two silvers and
as many bronzes.
Cambodia was forced to stay out of the Asian Games between 1970 and
1994, a time period that encompassed years of civil war and the brutal
reign of the Khmer Rouge regime.
“This is an incredibly big prize for Cambodian sports. It is not just
that our long and frustrating wait for a medal is over, it is also the
start of a new chapter in our history,” National Olympic Committee of
Cambodia secretary general Vath Chamroeun told the Post.
In the men’s marathon this morning, Kuniaki Takizaki, who is
popularly known in Cambodia and his native Japan as Neko Hiroshi,
finished last among 14 finishers, with a time of 2:34:16, which fell
just outside of his personal best time.
However, it was a case of deja vu for the Kingdom’s most successful
long distance runner, Hem Bunting, who failed to finish the race,
bringing back sad memories of a similar happening at the Guanzhou Games
in China four years ago.
Bahrain’s Mahboob Ali Hasan Mahboob crossed the finish line in
2:12:38 to take the gold, just a second ahead of Kohei Matsumura of
Japan, whose compatriot Yuki Kawauchi claimed bronze.
Not so soft
Soft tennis made its Asian Games debut in Incheon as a demonstration sport and it turned out to be a humbling experience for Cambodia both on and off the court.
While one of the country’s female players, Yi Sophany, was
disqualified after a pre-competition drugs test found traces of a banned
substance in her sample, Orn Sambath and his partner Ngoun Meng Chheng
lost all four of their men’s doubles group matches on Thursday at the
Yeorumul Tennis Center.
The Cambodian pair suffered 5-0 thrashing against South Korea’s
Kyucheol Park and Sanggwon Lee in the opening tie, followed an hour
later by a loss of the same margin to Japan’s Hidenori Shinohara and
Koji Kobayashi.
In the third group contest, the Mongolian duo of Enkhjin Bolortuya
and Damdin Altankhuyag also delivered a shut out to Sambath and Chheng.
Nepalese combination of Sohan Dhauvadel and Sthapit Ujjol beat the
Cambodian hopefuls 5-1 in the fourth match.
Earlier in the week, Orn Sambath, who was part of Cambodia’s tennis
team that took part in the Guanzhou Games four years ago, failed to get
past the preliminary stage after a record of two wins and two defeats in
the singles event.
Though Sambath managed to beat Negmatullo Rajabaliev of Tajikistan
and Taiwan’s Ting Chun Lin, those wins were too little too late since he
had lost the first two matches in Group A to Hyeongjun Kim of South
Korea and Takuya Katsura of Japan.
Sourced by: The Phnom Penh Post
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