A load of boules

Gold medalist and SEA Games singles champion, again, Sok Chanmean

Friday morning, before the afternoon football match against Vietnam, I went to join with some of the other Cambodian competitors at the SEA Games and particularly the petanque team, of whom great things are expected. Their court is right next to the Games Village and when I arrived the petanque team - 12 men and 12 women - were all getting their eye in on the practice area. I spoke for quite a while with one of the women's triples team, Oum Chantrea, who spoke very good English. She pointed out all the players for me and gave me some background on the various categories of petanque, or boules as she called it. She also told me she trains for many hours every day, especially in the lead up to the SEA Games, where Cambodia and Thailand are always battling it out for the medals. Though she's on the books of the police force in Phnom Penh, she's travelled widely through Asia with the petanque team and loves her sport and the comraderie with her team. I met the two singles competitors, 2007 gold medalist Sok Chamean, who is the brightest star of the whole team, and ladies national champion Ouk Sreymom, who Chantrea said; 'she looks like a man,' though that didn't stop her in the semi-final I watched, from blitzing her opponent, though she had to later settle for the silver medal in the afternoon final. The team were very vocal in their support for each other and everyone took what vanatge point they could to watch the morning's semi-finals. In the scorching sun, both of the Cambodians marched through to the finals, where Chanmean repeated his 2007 success.
After the semis ended I wandered over to the building where the taekwondo tournament was being held. Though the Cambodian team wasn't due to fight until later that day, I did meet up with some of the team, including the medalists from the day before, brother and sister duo, Sorn Elit and Sorn Davin, who have got to be the tallest Cambodians I've ever met. I also chatted to Ung Chamroeun, my colleague from the Phnom Penh Post, who was darting about covering as many sports as he could, though he was a bit down after his favoured tennis teams were knocked out of the team event at the first hurdle. As I type, Cambodia has 11 medals, 7 in taekwondo and 4 in petanque, with the latter giving us our 2 golds so far.

Ladies singles silver medalist, Ouk Sreymom

Sok Chanmean in serious concentration mode during his semi

The two Cambodian medalists together at the end of their semis

A view of the petanque court next to the Games Village, at the national university complex

A giant of a man and a silver medalist in taekwondo, Sorn Elit

A family to be proud of, Sorn Davin (bronze) and Sorn Elit (silver), both taekwondo medalists

I bumped into Sompong Soleb, the Thailand striker who looks likely to be the tournament's top scorer with 2 hat-tricks, though the Thais are now out

Vietnam boss Henrique Calisto is mobbed by the press after the win over Cambodia

A massive Vietnam flag is paraded before the game, where Vietnam fans outnumbered Cambodians by 1,000 to 1

Success and failure

The Cambodia line-up for today's game against Vietnam: LtoR [back] Udom, Narith, Yaty, Tiny, Rithy, Borey. [front] Sotheara, Sokumpheak, Sokngorn, Raksmey, Sovannarith

Cambodia found Vietnam in no mood to dish out the niceties in their final Group A SEA Games match this afternoon at Chao Anouvong. If anyone thought that Vietnam would take it easy on their neighbours then they were mistaken, as they pummeled the Cambodian team into submission, leading 2-0 at halftime and then piling on the agony in the second half, to win 6-1. Cambodia gave their opponents too much room to play in and didn't get in nearly enough tackles, as Vietnam adopted their fast-paced style of football and proved too hot to handle for the Cambodian youngsters. Khim Borey pulled back a consolation goal for Cambodia after Vietnam had netted four without reply but it was too little too late and another couple of goals in the last 7 minutes gave the scoreline that lopsided look. Three defeats and that win over East Timor showed that Cambodia still have some way to go to match the better teams in SEAsia, but they always knew their Group was going to be very difficult, and that's exactly how it turned out. Thailand, who've won the last eight gold medals in SEA Games at mens football won't win this time around after losing late on to Malaysia, 2-1, when they only needed a draw to go through. More from the Cambodia match later.
Earlier in the day I went to the national university complex to give some support to the Cambodian petanque (boules) team and was pleased to see that the men and women's singles competitors were on top of their game. I couldn't stay for the afternoon finals but they won their semi-finals against Laos opponents with room to spare and with some style. Sok Chanmean is already a SEA Games gold medalist from 2007 and showed his class in his semi-final. At the same time, national ladies singles champion Ouk Sreymom disposed of her semi-final opponent with some ease to qualify for the final. The support given to the players by their own Cambodian contingent was noisy, with the petanque squad comprising 12 men and 12 women and all were on the sidelines cheering their colleagues onto victory. I've just heard that Sok Chanmean took the mens singles gold medal but Ouk Sreymom had to settle for the silver in her final, as she did in 2007.

The Cambodian team's pre-match huddle in front of the massed ranks of Vietnam fans

Cambodia's Petanque singles medalists: Sok Chanmean (left) and Ouk Sreymom