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Published on October 6, 2007

Wachara of the Do Win Athletic Club, the newly formed club set up by the Ariyamongkol brothers - national head coach Pol Maj-General Supanut and AAT secretary-general Pol Maj-General Surapong - trounced a strong field, which included four national sprinters, Sitthichai Suwornpratheep, Thaweesak Poolthong, Panom Pudsa and Siriroj Darasuriyong, to win in 10.38 seconds.

Wachara's impressive time not only erased Vissanu's previous record of 10.52 seconds which had stood since the 1997 Open in Bangkok, but also bettered his winning time of 10.47 in the Manila SEA Games.

It was also the second time in just 10 days that Wachari had beaten the 200-metre star, Sitthichai. In the recent National Games in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Wachara also relegated the same opponent to the second place, crossing the line first in 10.49.

In the women's 4x100 relay event, the quartet of Supawadee Khaopuek, Sangwan Jaksunil, Juthamas Thaworncharoen and Umpraporn Songkua from the Do Win Club outran the Royal Air force team, to win the record-shattering time of 44.15sec.

Narongdech Janjai of the Royal Thai Police also set a meet record, winning the 110m hurdles in 13.82 seconds, but his record was ratified after the organisers claimed the starting blocks were not placed on the starting line.

Royal Thai Air Force's Thitima Muangchan leapt 6.09m to win the women's long jump title.

Earlier, SEA Games record-holder Boonthung Srisang won the meet's first gold in the men's 10,000m, clocking 31 minutes, 25.79 seconds.

Overseas athletes captured six out of 12 gold medals on offer on the opening day of the four-day meet.

The star of the show was Malaysian Josbert Tinus, who leaped 7.88 metres to claim the gold in the men's long jump. Josbert's distance also betterd the Malaysian national record and the SEA Games record of 7.79m established 18 years ago in Jakarta.

Hong Kong's Leung Yee Mei took the women's hammer title with a best throw of 45.60m, Malaysian Lee Hup Wei set the men's high jump mark of 2.15m and Filipino Danilo Fresnido hurled the javelin to a distance of 70.27m.

In the men's 1,500m, Taiwanese Chen Fu-Pin captured the men's title with the time of 3min 55.0sec, with Burmese Ni Ni Toe taking the women's crown in 4:40.53.

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

The Nation

Pathum Thani