Timor Leste wins 1st medal

Timor Leste wins 1st medal

MANILA: Timor Leste did what it has never done -- pick up a medal in a major international competition.

Francisca Varela of Timor Leste won a bronze medal in a women's anyo division of arnis, a Filipino martial art that emphasizes stick fighting, at the 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. It gave the fledgling country its first medal of any color in any Games.

Timor Leste, a former Indonesian province, competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 -- while still under United Nations administration -- and again at Athens in 2004 when the country marched under its own flag. It did not win a medal in either Olympics.

The country also did not win a medal at the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, in 2002 and the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam in 2003. -- AP