Women boxers, biker contribute to gold chest

In the women’s mountain bike event, Vipavee Deekaballes made Thailand proud, crossing the finish line first in 2.37.191 minutes in the 1.5km downhill race. Indonesian Risa Suseanty and another Thai, Sattayanun Abdulkaree, secured second and third places in 2.38.707 and 2.42.635 minutes respectively.

Suebsakun Sukchanya had to be content with bronze medal in the men’s event after clocking 2.24.125 minutes. Indonesian bikers made it a one-two finish.

HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, riding Htate Kwet, scored 53.810 points to finish in 10th place in the equestrian individual dressage event. Praveen Natr Mathavan from Malaysia on Sein Win Mal captured gold with 67.405 points. 

“I felt a bit nervous with so many things in my head, from the horse itself and the game plan for the competition. At one point, I made a mistake and had to refocus on other things I had to do.

“The horse’s quite strong and sometimes didn’t follow what I wanted it to do. I’m thankful for all the support everyone gave me here as well as those warm words I got in Facebook and IG,” said Princess Sirivannavari, who had represented the country in the badminton competition in the biennial tournament.  

Thai shuttlers made it to three finals yesterday. World No 18 and Dutch Open champion Busanan Ongbumrungpan failed to make her mark and went down to Indonesia’s Manuputi Belaetrix 9-21 21-13 21-13 in the women’s singles showdown.

In the boxing competition, the country’s female boxers agonisingly failed to make it a hat-trick of gold medals after Sudaporn Seesondee fell victim to a dubious decision and had to settle for silver in the 60kg class at Wunna Theikdi Sports Complex. 

Two-time champion Sopida Satumrum initially set the tone for the Thai camp by overcoming Vietnam’s Ngvyen Thi Yen with a split decision to successfully defend her title in the 51kg class.

“I’m quite satisfied with my form and winning the gold medal. But, I want the association to find more tournaments for us in order to gain experience at the international level. We’ve seen little action in the ring recently,” Sopida said after winning her third gold in the tournament.

Peamwilai Laopeam replicated Sopida’s feat in the 54kg category after she also won her third gold medal in the event with a unanimous decision over Indonesia’s Ester Kalayukw. 

“I’m very happy with the success today. But, I’m not quite happy with my overall performance. I think I’ve made little progress. Perhaps it’s because we lacked competition. I’ll let the association decide my future,” said Peamwilai.

Sopida, the last Thai fighter to box yesterday, was unable to make it a perfect day for Thai boxing after she went down to a split decision against her Vietnamese opponent, despite having dominated the bout.  

On Friday, Thailand ruled the pool with four gold medals. Swimming queen Natthanan Junkrajang, who captured five gold medals in the previous edition in Indonesia two years ago, won the country’s first gold in the women’s 100m freestyle event. The other three gold came from Radomyos Matjiur in the men’s 100m breaststroke, Benjaporn Sriphanomthorn in the women’s 400m freestyle and a women’s quartet, including Natthanan and Benjaporn, in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

 

 

MEDAL TABLE

G S B

Myanmar   30 28 24

Indonesia 27 33 25

Vietnam   27 18 24

Thailand   26 28 24

Malaysia   13 9 25

Singapore 8 8 16

Cambodia 4 6 11

The Philippines 3 5 10

Laos  2 5 14

Brunei     1 0 3

Timor Leste 0   0 0

NOTE: Last updated 6pm, December 14