Cambodia leaves turmoil for Games

As the 19th SEA Games draw near, The Jakarta Post will run a profile of each the 10 participating countries starting on Oct. 3. The story below is the second in the series.

JAKARTA (JP): Cambodian athletes are heading here for the 19th SEA Games, shrugging off the domestic political turmoil which almost slumped the country back into its past nightmare.

It is obvious that despite its modest preparations that Cambodia, only an occasional participant of the SEA Games, shows a strong determination to participate this time, and to take home some medals.

Members of the Cambodian squad are arriving separately, but all 76 male athletes, two female athletes and 36 officials should be here by Oct. 7, -- giving them four days to acclimatize before the Games begin.

They will compete in track and field, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, soccer, judo, karate, sepak takraw, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, and beach volleyball events.

And Cambodia is set to win medals in boxing, track and field and swimming. Boxing and judo gave it a bronze apiece in the previous meet in Chiang Mai, Thailand two years ago.

Chiang Mai marked the return of Cambodia to the biennial event after missing for two decades due to civil war and a spell of national recovery and consolidation.

Four years of war between 1975 and 1979 devastated most of the sports facilities built by the French colonial administration in the country.

After the war, reconstruction of the facilities was painfully slow as the country fell short of sponsorship to finance the project.

Cambodia used to take part in the then Southeast Peninsula (SEAP) Games, and made its debut in the second episode of these Games in Rangoon, Burma in December 1961. For such a newcomer, winning a gold, six silvers and four bronzes was worthy of praise.

Financial shortages prevented the country from playing host to the Games twice in 1963 and 1967, but to everybody's surprise it accepted the offer to stage the Games of New Emerging Forces (Ganefo) in 1966.

Cambodia made its last appearance in the SEAP Games in 1973, and it took 22 years to come back to the sporting event which had changed its name to the SEA Games.

For Cambodians, boxing is not a strange event, thanks to its sporting heritage called Khmer boxing, a traditional martial art which is similar to the more popular Thai boxing.

National boxing coach, Chhom Charry said that due to their modest preparations, his team's victory would be determined only by their fighting spirit.

"The team are trained in a simple manner. We even have to use shoes and gloves by turns. But we are ready to perform better than we did in the last SEA Games in Chiang Mai," Charry was quoted by Kompas as saying.

Cambodia is setting its sights on taking two silvers with light flyweight Van Darith and Seap Vanna who will contest the flyweight division. Darith won the bronze in Chiang Mai.

To fulfill their ambitions, Charry sent the two boxers for a stint in Japan.

Other than the two boxers, Charry will field six out of his eight second-string prodigies.

In track and field, Cambodia is hoping to grab medals in the 5,000-meter, 10-kilometer and marathon races, according to coach Chary Kimsan.

Kimsan said that the country would rely solely on its male runners, such as middle-distance specialist Chhing Pisseth who will run in 5,000m. Two other runners are Pich Kong and Chhyn Doag who will race in 10km.

Kong clocked 35.34 seconds, followed by Doag in 35.29 in the national championships in April.

In the marathon, the country relied on Hout Peou, who ranked seventh in Chiang Mai. Peou's clocked two hours and 47 minutes.

Sprinter Kong Bona was expected to beat his record. Bona clocked his best time of 11.20 in 100m and 22.26 in 200m.

Separately, national swimming trainer Ouh Samouth said Cambodia expected to grab at least one bronze from 100m and 200m men's freestyle specialist Hem Kiri in the Games.

Kiri's brother, Hem Lumphat, is expected to steal a medal in the 100m breaststroke, Samouth said.

She said Hem Rasmey was the only woman swimmer she expected to win medals -- in either the 50m, 100m freestyle or 200m individual medley. (09)