Asian Games: Gold again and two incidents (plus video)
And again Thailand has moved up one place on the medal list of the Asian Games. With the victory of (BMX) cyclist Amanda Carr, the country took the ninth gold medal and rose from eighth to seventh place. The country is now two places away from the target of eleven gold in Incheon.
'I knew I would win gold', Carr (Thai mother from Udon Thani, American father) reacts soberly to her victory. My next goal now is to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.
In taekwondo, the party atmosphere was a little less exuberant. Panipak Wongpattanakit and Rangsiya Nisasom, two of the country's contenders, had to settle for bronze after losing in the semi-finals.
Three more days and then the seventeenth Asian Games will be over. All eyes are on regu sepak takraw, where the men and women are favourite.
This afternoon the Thai football team will play against Iraq in the play-off for third place. Thailand has never won a medal in football before, so nerves are running through everyone's throat [or not]. “The match is very important for our team. We want to win bronze," says coach Kiatisak Senamuang.
Midfielder Charyl Chappuis, one of Thailand's best players, is looking forward to the match. "We're going to try to win bronze," he repeats Kiatisak's words. Or striker Adisak Kraisorn plays depends on a final fitness test, but there are plenty of substitutes.
Two incidents
The Games also had two incidents. Indian boxer Sarita Devi refused to bow at the medal ceremony so that the medal could be hung around her neck. She grabbed the bronze in her hand in protest of what she called the "biased jury verdict" during the semi-final she lost.
The second incident took place in the public gallery. Korean fans unveiled a large banner during Sunday's football quarterfinals depicting a Korean hero who killed a top Japanese official a century ago and was later hanged by the Japanese.
The protest against the occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 by Japan angered the Japanese Olympic Committee, which lodged a protest with the organizers of the Games. The organization reacted with restraint: 'The protest of the JOC was not very strong, so we do not expect it to escalate into a big fight.'
(Source: Bangkok Post, October 2, 2014)
Watch Amanda Carr's victory on video below from Thai television channel PBS.