With one silver and eight bronze medals in the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines ending today, Cambodia’s athletes have so far won more medals than East Timor and Brunei, but fewer than Laos and Burma, according to the games’ official Web site.
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Undersecretary of State Bou Chomserey said Cambodians have won a silver medal in petanque and bronze medals in wrestling, taekwondo and boxing. “The contestants tried very hard,” he added.
Bout Vichet, 26, won a bronze medal as a featherweight in taekwondo. “I am not really happy even though I won the bronze medal. If I got silver or gold I would have been much happier because I got the same medal in the last SEA Games,” in Vietnam in 2003, he said.
“I tried very hard to make other countries know that Cambodia is also strong in taekwondo,” Bout Vichet added.
The Korean head coach of the Cambodian taekwondo national team, Thoi Yong Sok, said six Cambodians competed in the discipline at the games.
With appearances in four SEA Games in a row, Bout Vichet was one of the most experienced Cambodian fighters, he said. “He is the best in Cambodia,” he added.
The football team representing Cambodia in the games returned home last week after losing all of its three games.
In a last minute decision before the games, the National Olympic Committee replaced the national team with the Cambodian League champion team Khemara supported by Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, plus four national-team players.
“We met strong teams like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand,” Khemara captain Chea Virath said Sunday. “We did not have long to train,” he said, adding that there was not enough time to integrate the four players from the national team into the team.
