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Published on November 30, 2007

Fans were on cloud nine yesterday as home shooters made a clean sweep of six gold medals up for grabs to help Thailand surge from fourth place to top of the medal tally in the 24th SEA Games.

The day began on a high when the women's 10m air pistol team of Warinya Butcha, Tanyaporn Prucksakorn and Wanwarin Yusawat combined well to fire an aggregate of 1,131 points to clinch gold. Vietnam and Singapore finished second and third respectively with similar scores of 1,112 points.

In the individual event, teenager Warinya shot a combined 481.2 points to snatch her second gold, relegating best qualifier and team-mate Tanyaporn to second spot with an aggregate of 477.7 points. Nguyen Thuvan of Vietnam claimed bronze with a total of 475.5 points.

"I had lost my confidence in the beginning. The result really surprised me as I never tho-ught that I would win gold. It's more than a success when considering that this is my first SEA Games," Warinya said.

The winning streak continued when Thais scooped both gold medals on offer in the men's 25m standard pistol team and individual events.

Prakarn Karndee, Pruet Sriyaphan and Pongpol Kulchairattana captured the gold with the combined 1,657 points.

Darkhorse Prakarn, who made the lowest score during the training session, defied all odds to win gold with a tally of 563 points.

"I don't know how to say how much happy I'm. This is my first two gold medals and also my personal best in the individual event in my debut effort in the SEA Games. I'm really excited," Prakarn remarked.

Team-mate Pruet failed to hold his nerve in the third-place duel and lost narrowly to his Vietnamese competitor.

It was also a terrible day for Pongpol, who was the country's top medal prospect in this event, as his non-functional firearm prevented him from grabbing any medal.

"I did my best. My gun was out of order before the competition which forced me to use a new one, with which I wasn't very familiar," said Pongpol, who finished at ninth place.

The silver and bronze medals in both team's and individual's events were taken home by shooters from Singapore and Vietnam respectively.

The fans' cheers at the Hua Mark Shooting Range became non-stop as Thai markswomen did not let the last two gold slip through their fingers in the 50m rifle 3-position category.

The squad of Sasithorn Hongprasert, Kusuma Tavisri and Thanyalak Chotphibunsin won gold with a tally of 1,708 points, with Vietnam in second place 29 points behind. Malaysia claimed bronze with an aggregate of 1,675 points.

Sasithorn led from the start to wrap up the last gold of the day for the host country with a total of 669.5 points in the individual event.

"I was relaxed in the beginning. But the tension started to take its toll when the Malaysian shooter gave me a tough fight. Fortunately, my coach's encouragement helped me to keep cool," said Sasithorn, who still has to contest in the 10m air rifle category.

Team-mate Kusuma, who was the best scorer in the final, failed to catch up with Sasithorn and had to be content with a silver. Nursuryani Mohd Taibi of Malaysia shot 665.3 points to take bronze.

Somporn Suphop

 The Nation