Thursday, July 10, 2008

More young Cambodian athletes to compete internationally

PHNOM PENH, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Education and Sport is to request governmental permission to send more promising young athletes to join sport events abroad, reported English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times Thursday.

Prum Ponyi, chairman of the University and Secondary School Sports Tournament Organizing Committee, was quoted by the papers that the youngsters can therefore gain wider experience, boost the kingdom's sporting reputation and improve international relations.

As included in the ministry's request, a number of students are to compete in the second ASEAN Primary School Games, to be held in November in Jakarta, Indonesia, and at the 14th ASEAN University Games, also in November in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he said.

Heng Davy, student at the Human Resource Development University and national volleyball player, said that she felt ready to play abroad after two years of hard training.

"I believe that I will have the chance to join tournaments in Asia to better my skills and gain experience," she said.

Ministry secretary of state Bun Sok said that similar delegations had been successful in the past.

"In December 2006, we sent six players representing three types of sports, namely athletics, table tennis and Taekwondo, to join the 13th ASEAN University Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam, and we received a silver medal and a bronze medal. This is a great pride," he said.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sports development in Cambodia is very crucial if it ever wants to have it's athletes compete at the international level. Right now, a lot of sports programs and organizations lack funding and proper management and as a result, it is preventing Cambodian athletes from progressing. Right now, Cambodian athletes are little by little improving towards some respectable standards but we are still way behind our Asian neighbors in terms of level, but the progress is slowly maturing.

Anonymous said...

I hope they will win some medals for the country. Even bronze will do.