Cambodia sets gold medal record at SEA Games

Sunday, May 7, 2023 15:39 (GMT+7)
17 hours ago

With 19 gold medals as of 3:00 p.m. on May 7, the Cambodian sports delegation achieved the highest achievement in the history of participating in the Southeast Asian Games.

The Cambodian delegation won consecutive gold medals at the 32nd SEA Games. Photo: Quang Thinh .

Before the 32nd SEA Games took place, the Cambodian Olympic Committee (CAMSOC) set a target of increasing the number of medals won at the previous Games. In Vietnam last year, the Cambodian delegation won 63 medals of all kinds, including 9 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 41 bronze medals.

As of 3pm today, Cambodia has already exceeded its gold medal target. They have reached 47 medals of all kinds, including 19 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 15 bronze medals.

This achievement helped Cambodia surpass the record set at the 1971 SEA Games 52 years ago. At that time, the Cambodian Sports Delegation won a total of 17 gold medals, 18 silver medals and 18 bronze medals.

Cambodia's 19 gold medals this time came from the following sports: kun bokator (4), vovinam (4), sepak takraw (3), jujitsu (2), kun Khmer (2), softball (1), conch (1), women's triathlon (1) and Esports (1).

Besides traditional sports that are their strengths such as ouk chaktrang and kun Khmer, Cambodian athletes also won many gold medals in other sports such as jiu-jitsu, vovinam, wushu... Thanks to that, the country's sports delegation is rising to the top position in the whole delegation.

This is considered the most successful SEA Games in Cambodia’s history in terms of gold medals. However, the host country has not won any medals in important Olympic events such as athletics or swimming as of noon on May 7.

Thailand aims to win 162 gold medals, nearly double the previous edition in Vietnam with 92 gold medals. If the target is achieved as planned, Thailand will almost certainly be the top team in the 32nd SEA Games.

The goal of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation is to win from 89 to 120 gold medals, nearly half of the 205 gold medals won last term, to be among the leading countries, maintain high rankings in Olympic sports, and be determined to successfully defend the titles of the two men's football teams (U22) and women's football teams.

SEA Games 32 includes 37 sports with 608 events, the most in history. Meanwhile, SEA Games 31 in Vietnam and 30 in the Philippines have 526 and 531 events, respectively.

SEA Games swimming record broken in qualifying round On the morning of May 7, swimmer Jonathan Tan of the Singapore Sports Delegation won first place in the qualifying round of the 32nd SEA Games in the men's 50m freestyle event with a time of 21.91 seconds, breaking the old record (21.93 seconds).

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Cambodia sets record Cambodia SEA Games record