She could have just quit. The race was long decided, and rain was falling in torrents. But Bou Samnang was running for her country — Cambodia — so she kept going, racing alone on a track in Phnom Penh. And for that, she is being hailed as an inspiration.
“I tried to reach the finish line because I wanted to show people that in life, even though we go a bit slow or fast, we will reach our destination all the same,” she said afterward, according to Agence France-Presse. “So we should not give up. We should try our best.”
News of Bou Samnang’s persistence spread rapidly: Sports and news outlets around the world shared video of her finishing the women’s 5,000-meter race (3.1 miles) on May 8 at the Southeast Asian Games, which Cambodia is hosting for the first time.
In full: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176430543/female-runner-cambodia-last-rain-southeast-asian-games
