Khmer identity sports – Kun Bokator, Kun Khmer and Ouk Chaktrang (Chess) – at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia have ended successfully.
Cambodia won in total 23 gold medals for the three sports: 8 in Kun Bokator, 14 in Kun Khmer, and 1 in Ouk Chaktrang.
The performance in the three identity sports have impressed participating athletes and spectators from both inside and outside de country. This is a pride of Cambodia to include its identity sports into the SEA Games 2023, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh, President of the Cambodian SEA Games-ASEAN Para Games Organising Committees (CAMSOC-CAMAPGOC), at a medal conferment ceremony for Ouk Chaktrang winners here in Phnom Penh recently.
Ouk Chaktrang has already been listed in the charter of the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF), said the CAMSOC-CAMAPGOC president, adding that SEA Games members countries will then send their athletes to join the sport at the SEA Games.
Mr. Sahapol Nakvanich, President of Thailand Chess Association has recently pledged to include Ouk Chaktrang into the 33rd SEA Games to be hosted by Thailand in 2025, stressing that whether Khmer and Myanmar Chess, the sports are similar in the Southeast Asian region, and it is crucial to strengthen the relations between people and people and between nation and nation.
Kun Bokator and Kun Khmer were listed in the SEAGF's charter and rules in a council meeting held in Phnom Penh on May 4, 2023 under the chairmanship of H.E. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC), with the participation from the Olympic Committees of the ASEAN members.
As of May 12 afternoon, Cambodia sit second on the medal list by grabbing about 155 medals, of which 56 are gold.
At the 31st SEA Games 2022 in Vietnam, Cambodia earned only 63 medals, including 9 gold medals and was ranked 8th out of the participating ten ASEAN member countries and Timor-Leste.
Cambodia is hosting the SEA Games 2023 from May 5 to 17 under the motto "Sports: Live in Peace".
Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP)