Myanmar basks in first golds
Source: Agencies |
November 28, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MYANMAR won its first two gold medals at the Asian Games in the popular southeast Asian sport of sepak takraw yesterday, though the excitement proved too great for a team official who fainted and was hospitalized.
The golds came on the final day of competition in Guangzhou for the resource-rich country which has been ruled by a military-backed government for nearly 50 years.
"We're very much pleased, honored and very happy," said Myanmar men's doubles captain Si Thu Lin, who led his team to a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win over South Korea in the skillful sport that involves shuttling a rattan ball over a net with the feet, head and chest.
For the tiny, but vocal band of Myanmar supporters who waved flags and cheered every point, there was more joy to come, when the Myanmar women's doubles team clinched a second gold in a nail-biting contest against a resurgent China duo of Sun Xiaodan and Cui Yonghui, winning 2-1 (21-15, 14-21, 17-16) in a grueling 1 1/2-hour final.
After a tie breaker that saw both sides go neck and neck in desperate fighting rallies, Myanmar finally nicked it 17-16 with Myanmar's team leader, Nyan Htun, taken away on a stretcher by emergency medical personnel and rushed to hospital.
"He was shocked ... and just collapsed," Myanmar's head coach Kyaw Zin Moe said as medics checked his vital signs.
Yesterday's performance was Myanmar's best ever in sepak takraw at the Asian Games. It won its first and only previous gold in 1998 at Bangkok in the women's regu.
The golds came on the final day of competition in Guangzhou for the resource-rich country which has been ruled by a military-backed government for nearly 50 years.
"We're very much pleased, honored and very happy," said Myanmar men's doubles captain Si Thu Lin, who led his team to a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win over South Korea in the skillful sport that involves shuttling a rattan ball over a net with the feet, head and chest.
For the tiny, but vocal band of Myanmar supporters who waved flags and cheered every point, there was more joy to come, when the Myanmar women's doubles team clinched a second gold in a nail-biting contest against a resurgent China duo of Sun Xiaodan and Cui Yonghui, winning 2-1 (21-15, 14-21, 17-16) in a grueling 1 1/2-hour final.
After a tie breaker that saw both sides go neck and neck in desperate fighting rallies, Myanmar finally nicked it 17-16 with Myanmar's team leader, Nyan Htun, taken away on a stretcher by emergency medical personnel and rushed to hospital.
"He was shocked ... and just collapsed," Myanmar's head coach Kyaw Zin Moe said as medics checked his vital signs.
Yesterday's performance was Myanmar's best ever in sepak takraw at the Asian Games. It won its first and only previous gold in 1998 at Bangkok in the women's regu.
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