Thais target two SEA Games golds in pencat silat
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The Pencat Silat Association of Thailand has set its sights on two SEA Games gold medals from its two key exponents - last year's world championship silver medallist Panja Ngoentim and former Games gold medallist Nantachai Khansakorn.
Panu Uthairat, president of the PSAT, placed high hopes on the two stars, who are among the 12-member squad (10 men and 2 women) which will take part in the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar from December 11-22. A total of 14 titles will be competed for in Nay Pyi Taw.
“Although we did not return home with any golds from the last Games in Indonesia, we hope that at least we would win two in Burma because our team has been well prepared and has produced some impressive results in recent events,” said Panu, who has only been in the job for four months.
The team has been training in the far South province of Yala since July under the supervision of Malaysian and Indonesian coaches. They have participated in several warm-up tournaments, including a pre-SEA Games meet in Nay Pi Taw, where they earned two silvers, and two meets in Indonesia (six golds) and Malaysia (two golds).
Panja, who won one of the two silvers in the Pre-SEA Games meet, will be competing in the men’s A class 45-50kg while Nanthachai, who won back-to-back Games golds in 2007 and 2009, will be fighting in the men’s B class 50-55kg.
Though confident of the high level of fitness and readiness of his athletes, Panu has some concern over the judging, reckoning it could deny Thailand the expected number of gold medals next month.
“I have emphasised several times to my athletes that if they want to win, they have to make it clear and with a big margin.
If it’s a close fight, it could go either way. Judging sport is never easy. I hope the judges will be fair,” he said.
The PSAT boss added that his team has been warmly welcomed by people in Yala despite the problems in the deep South.
They have had no worry over their safety or security and have been promised an incentive of at least Bt200,000 for a gold medal, supported by the private sector there.
While it’s a “mission possible” for Thai pencat silat exponents to secure a gold in Myanmar, it will be an uphill task for the Table Tennis Association of Thailand to achieve one, as Singapore, the regionalping-pong powerhouses, are predicted to repeat their clean sweep of the 2011 Games.
The association’s vice president and national team manager, Udom Suksudprasert, says that Singapore will field a full team of China-origin players at the upcoming Games, which offers only four tabele tennnis gold medals: men’s team, women’s teams, men’s singles and women’s singles.
“The Singaporean men’s and women’s team won the World Championships in 2011. They have three top-20 players in the men’s team. So our best shot is a silver in every category. We hope to win two silvers, providing that we get some good draws in the singles events,” Udom said.
