Asian Beach Games: Thailand lands 12 of 14 gold in single day

PHUKET: Hosts Thailand flexed their muscles to haul in 12 of the 14 gold medals up for grabs yesterday to stay atop the overall standings with 60 medals – including 25 gold – in the 4th Asian Beach Games being hotly contested in Phuket.

Thailand made a clean sweep of both golds on offer in the beach petanque yesterday, with Wannida Rooyoo outclassing Laotian Manyvanh 13-11 to take the women’s singles crown and Suranath Phudungsap claiming the men’s singles title after thrashing Malaysia’s Mat M Mafizuddin 13-6 in the final.

Five golds were up for grabs in the water-skiing yesterday and Thailand dominated by clinching three of them, leaving South Korea and the Philippines to take one gold apiece in the men’s team cable wakeboard and men’s team cable wakestake events respectively. The hosts’ three golds came from Srirasin Khamklom in the women’s team cable wakeboard, Tantanasorn Chaiyabood in the women’s team cable wakestake, and in the mixed cable team overall.

Thailand also swept both golds in the men’s and women’s team events in the beach sepak takraw competition. The men thrashed South Korean 2-0 while the women brushed off Vietnam 2-0 in the final.

Jetski rider Thanarwin Phakphokhai handed Thailand another gold in the Sport GP event after collecting an aggregate 166 points, while Molee Chok-Uthit also burnished Thai pride by scoring 120 points to win the women’s Runabout Open. Thailand also performed superbly to win two more golds in woodball, thanks to the men’s and women’s stroke team.

However, the Thai beach basketball team failed to make it to the final yesterday. The men’s team beat Oman 16-9 in the quarter-finals but went down 21-16 to Qatar in the knockout semi-finals. The Thais then grabbed bronze after narrowly beating Bangladesh 17-15 in the third-place play-off.

The Thai women followed suit, losing 17-13 to powerhouse China in the semi-finals but claiming bronze after downing Mongolia 13-7 in the third-place play-off. Taiwan stunned China 15-13 to take the men’s crown and Qatar beat India 21-20 to win the title.

In the beach volleyball, Thai title-holders Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha Udomchavee went down to China’s Lin Meimei and Tang Ningya 21-12 24-26 17-19, but Yapa Phokong-ploy and Usa Tenpaksee clinched their second win with a convincing 21-18 21-15 victory over Malaysia’s Luk Tech Hua and Beh Shun Thing.

Today, the sixth day of the competition, has 10 gold medals at stake, as follows:

Beach Athletics: 2 gold (men’s long jump and men’s shot put) at Naiyang Beach

Beach Modern Pentathlon: 1 gold (men’s individual) at Naiyang Beach

Jetski: 1 gold (Runabout Endurance) at Patong Beach

Woodball: 2 gold (men’s stroke and women’s stroke) at Karon Beach

Extreme sports: 4 gold (Inline Skate – Best Trick, BMX Park – Best Trick, Skateboard – Stunt Park and Skateboard – Game of Skate) at Saphan Hin Sports Centre

The Phuket Gazette is proud to have been selected as the sole English-language media sponsor for the 2014 Asian Beach Games being held in Phuket (story here).

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— The Nation / Phuket Gazette