Laos won its first gold medal in the men's singles poomsae (dancing style) taekwondo event at the Booyong Gymnasium at the National University of Laos yesterday.
Gold medallist Soukthavy Panyasit outside the Booyong Gymnasium.
At only 15 years of age, Soukthavy Panyasit won the medal in his first ever competition for the national taekwondo team in front of over 400 spectators.
Soukthavy, from Somsanouk village in Thakhaek district, Khammuan province, began training in taekwondo three years ago and showed sufficient promise to be selected by the Lao Taekwondo Federation for the SEA Games.
Soukthavy Panyasit and Soukthavone Manirard also won silver medals in the men's team poomsae event.
Soukthavy expressed his pride at winning the first gold medal for Laos and explained that he and his team-mates had gained much strength and confidence during a three month training course in the Republic of Korea in the lead up to the games. The team trained for five hours each day.
In the women's poomsae singles Kidavone Philavong from Xieng Khuang province won a silver medal for Laos .
This is the first SEA Games to feature the poomsae event, which consists of singles and team categories.
Lao taekwondo fighters won one silver and five bronze medals at the 24th SEA Games in Thailand in 2007.
During training in the Republic of Korea , the Lao taekwondo team competed in the Korean Open at the National University of Seoul, with two fighters winning gold medals in the poomsae event.
At the current SEA Games 135 fighters from 11 countries are competing in the taekwondo competition, which features both poomsae and fighting events.
Results of Wednesday's poomsae events :
Men's singles:
Soukthavy Panyasit ( Laos ): gold.
San Shein Thet ( Myanmar ): silver.
Daniel Danny Harsono ( Indonesia ) and Cheat Khemara ( Cambodia ): bronze.
Women's singles:
Ya Min K-khine ( Myanmar ): gold.
Kidavone Philavong ( Laos ): silver.
Lee Jeng Yen ( Malaysia ) and Lessitra Draningrati ( Indonesia ): bronze.
Men's team:
Vietnam : gold.
Laos : silver.
The Philippines and Thailand : bronze.
Women's team:
The Philippines : gold.
Thailand : silver.
Vietnam and Indonesia : bronze.
Mixed pairs:
Vietnam : gold.
Thailand : silver.
The Philippines and Myanmar : bronze.
By Sangkhomsay Bubphanouvong
Vientianetimes
i'm glad he won the poomsae.. n congratulation too for kii n the men team..
i miss all the poomsae athletes..
they've been coming to jogjakarta, indonesia, last november for an international tournament,, n i was their liasson officer here..
do u know how to contact one of them??
Posted on December 9, 2009 at 8:39 PM