Thai athletes fail on big stage

Thai athletes won only eight medals, including a gold, at the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia. It was a far cry from what they had achieved in the previous edition in Shenzhen, China, two years ago, where they won seven gold.

Thailand sent 82 athletes to participate in eight sports disciplines in the July 6-17 event, regarded as the second-largest sporting event in the world, after the Olympics, in terms of participation. More than 10,400 university athletes from 162 countries participated in 13 mandatory and 14 optional sports, making the 2013 edition the biggest ever in the history of the event.

Thailand had set a target to win five gold medals in Kazan, two short of the total gold medals they had won in the previous edition. Despite fighting tooth and nail, the team could win only one gold, three silver and four bronze medals to finish 29th in the overall medal standings. The hosts emerged on top with 184 medals including 94 gold (as of 3pm yesterday).

Badminton player Tanongsak Saensomboonsak, the bronze medallist at this year’s All England Open, captured the gold medal in the men’s singles with a scintillating 21-12 21-17 victory over world No 27 Guo Huan of China on July 11. He will receive Bt1 million as cash incentive from the National Sports Development Fund.

Thailand clinched the first of their three silver medals through shooter Tanyaporn Prucksakorn, who finished second to Russia’s Liubov Yaskevich in the women’s 10m air pistol. Yaskevich shot 200.1 points, while Tanyaporn shot 196.9 points. China’s Su Yuling came third with 179.0 points.

The remaining two silver medals were won in the weightlifting event. On July 7, Kittima Sutana produced a combined lift of 194kg in the Olympic Total of the women’s 53kg class, one kilogramme behind gold medallist Yaki Kanae of Japan.

Powerful Chitchanok Pulsabsakul snatched the second weightlifting silver after lifting a combined 278kg in the women’s over-75kg division. The gold medal went to Russia’s Tatiana Kashrina, who set a meet record with an incredible lift of 319kg.

With only three days remaining before the curtain comes down on the closing ceremony of the biennial sporting event, Thailand’s chances of winning the targeted five gold medals are very slim. Several gold medal hopefuls have already missed out, including London Olympics heroine Pimsiri Sirikaew, who returned empty-handed from Kazan. The injured weightlifter had a below-par lift of 216kg to finish fourth in the women’s 58kg class, which was won by Taiwan’s Kuo Hsing-chun with the record attempt of 238kg.

Thai boxers, who held out big hopes, also suffered humiliating first-round losses.

Thai chef-de-mission Preecha Prayoonpat admitted that Thailand’s chances of achieving the five-gold target was difficult. However, he said that the efforts put in by the athletes at the Summer Universiade cannot be considered a failure.

“We cannot call it a failure if you have already tried your best. I admit that we missed several gold medals. This will be a good lesson for our athletes. They will be better prepared for the next major competition,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Thai women’s national volleyball team, which was missing three of their veterans including Pluemjit Thinkaow and Vilawan Apinyapong, found hosts Russia too strong and went down in straight sets 18-25 19-25 18-25 in the Saturday’s semi-finals. They will next take on Poland, who lost to defending champions Brazil 3-0, in today’s third-place play-off.

medal from badminton, three silver from weightlifting and shooting sport and four bronze medals