Thailand on top of medals table at Southeast Asian Games
Weightlifting and cycling victories help cause as Vietnam also accumulate 23 golds
Vientiane, Laos: Weightlifter Pitaya Tibnoke and cyclist Monrudee Chapookam won gold to put Thailand on top of the medal table at the Southeast Asian Games on Sunday.
Thailand also won gold in the 50-metres rifle three-position team event.
Thailand leads the medal tally with 23 gold, 28 silver and 32 bronze as the biennial tournament approaches the halfway point. Vietnam is second with 23 gold, 20 silver and 22 bronze, while Singapore is in third place with 20 gold, 10 silver and 20 bronze.
Vietnam won three golds yesterday — two in shooting and one in wushu, a form of martial arts.
Pitaya was level with Myanmar's Lin Htut Shwe in the men's 85-kg class at a combined 331 and faced the prospect of settling for the silver medal because of his greater body weight.
After clearing 181 kg in his second clean and jerk attempt, the 20-year-old hoisted 182 on his third for a combined 332 kg.
Pitaya and Lin Htut Shwe both lifted 150 kg in the snatch to better the games record of 146 set by Indonesia's Sandow Weldemar Nasution at Bacolod, Philippines in 2005. Pitaya's combined 332 was just 2kg short of Sandow's record total of 334.
Vietnam's Tran Van Hoa took the bronze with a combined lift of 306 kg.
Disappointment
Despite winning gold, Pitaya said he was disappointed with his performance.
"Normally I am able to lift 190 kg during training in Bangkok," he said.
Monrudee easily won the 30-kilometre individual time ahead of compatriot Chanpeng Nontasin for Thailand's second gold of the fifth day.
Thailand was expected to extend its lead with the athletics events slated to get under way later in the day, while Singapore and Malaysia are favourites for medals in the pool, where seven events are scheduled.
On Saturday night, Malaysian high school student Daniel Bego overcame a shoulder injury to swim to two gold medals in a pool that has produced six Southeast Asian Games records.
Bego set two of the records in the 400-metre freestyle and 100-metre butterfly, while Singaporean swimmers claimed the other four.
