Petanque players power Thailand to top
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Thailand, powered by their petanque players, yesterday overtook overnight leader Mongolia in the medal standings at the 4th Asian Beach Games yesterday.
Three gold medals were up for grabs in the petanque competition. World champions Thongsri Thamakord and Phantipha Wongchuvej handed Thailand the day’s first gold after brushing off Malaysia 13-6 in the women’s doubles event.
Thailand failed to make their mark in the mixed doubles with Jakkrapong Phanmaung and Phimp Phakhamchanthuek going down 13-6 to Vietnam.
In the men’s doubles, Supan Thongphoo and Sarawut Sriboonpeng led Vietnam 12-10 in the final at press time. If they win, Thailand would bag two of the three gold on offer in the petanque event. If they lose, Vietnam would emerge as the overall winner with two gold.
Thailand had mixed luck in the beach basketball at North Karon Beach after their women’s team beat Nepal 15-5 in the Group B preliminaries, while their men’s side first crushed Laos 13-1 in Group B before going down tamely to India 22-4.
In the men’s beach handball, Thailand were sent packing by Bahrain 21-9 21-11 in the Group B preliminaries at North Karon Beach, while in the beach soccer competition at the Saphan Hin Sports Centre, Thailand pulled off a fine 2-0 win over Kuwait in the men’s event.
The beach volleyball competition kicked off yesterday at Karon Beach, where a total of 43 men’s teams and 19 women’s sides will go through round-robin preliminaries.
Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha Udomchavee crushed the Tajikistan duo 21-4 21-11 in their first matc, but Pratip Sukto and Sittichai Sangkhachot went down to Iran 2-1 (21-23 23-21 16-14).
At press time, Thailand and Mongolia both had six gold medals. However, the hosts were No.1 because they had more silver and bronze medals.
Thailand had six gold, seven silver and 11 bronze medals. The UAE and Japan were third with four gold.
