With just three days before the curtain comes down, their dreams of returning with 14 golds are still possible.

Thailand's two gold medals yesterday came from the men's 4x100m relay quartet - Seksan Wongsala, Wachara Sondee, Sittichai Suwonprateep and Ekkachai Chanthana - and Athens Olympic hero Manus Boonjumnong in the light welterweight 64kg boxing.

Manus' team-mate Somjit Jongjohor also won a silver medal in the flyweight 51kg class.

Two young sailors, Navee Thamsoontorn and Benjamas Poonpat, also made the Kingdom proud. The 14-year-old Navee, who won a bronze at last year's SEA Games in Manila, grabbed a silver in the boys' Optimist after collecting 33 points from 12 races. His female team-mate Benjamas, 15, had to be content with a bronze in the girls' Optimist division after bagging 32 points from 12 races.

Today, Thailand looks sure to win the gold in the Hobie-16, as experienced skipper Damrongsak Vongtim, the consecutive two-time Asian champion, and his younger brother Sakda lead the six-boat pack with just 17 points from 11 races. Korean Park Kyutae trails in second place with 21 points.

Even if Damrongsak sails home last today in the final race of the competition, it's likely he will top the 12-race standings and take the Asian Games crown.

Sakda said: "We had no race today. It makes the competition much harder and also exciting because everybody is fighting for the gold medal. We were very lucky, the wind was very good on Monday and we stormed home first.

"We are still learning skills and everyday we learn new things. We have been sailing for two years now. It's really easy to sail in strong wind and we enjoy the speed of the boat. We feel really happy about our performance and tomorrow we will just do our best."

Thailand could surpass its target of 14 golds if fate favours the Kingdom. Danai Udomchoke has already booked a place in the men's singles tennis final, while Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwat progressed to the men's doubles final.

Two Thai fighters - Angkhan Chomphuphuang and Suban Pannon - have also made it to finals today, while the Kingdom hopes to sweep both golds from sepak takraw doubles events.

Yesterday, Thai Jarun Thiangprasert lost to Kazakhstan's Igor Kovalev 77-96 in the knock-out last 16 round in the individual archery competition at Lusail Archery Range.

Yanisa Torrattanawathana, who captured the karate-do gold in last year's SEA Games in Manila, was eliminated 2-3 by Taiwanese Huang Yu Chi in the women's individual kata quarter-finals. "My performance was not satisfactory. I made several mistakes. I felt that she [Huang] had made more mistakes than I, but I had to respect the referee's decision," said Yanisa, the Kingdom's lone gold-medal hope in karate-do.

"I did not train much on kata due to my knee injury. I will try again in the tomorrow's kumite. I will fight more carefully and I won't underestimate any opponent. I will give it everything to make the final."

Preechachan     Wiriyanupappong

The Nation

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