Cambodia picked up a gold medal in sepak takraw and a silver from petanque on Saturday while boxer Ven Ratha won his quarterfinals to make it to today’s medal round.

Lively anticipation surrounded the Cambodian camp as the Men’s sepak takraw team got down to business in the Chinlone Linking final against Laos. With steady scores of 152 and 156 in the two-set encounter, Cambodia kept out Laos who could only manage 145 and 154.

“This is our first Chinlone gold medal. We got a couple of silver medals among the six we won at Myanmar two years ago. This is indeed a great achievement. I hope it will inspire and motivate the rest of the contingent in the days ahead” Cambodia’s Chef de Mission and Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia told the Post yesterday.

Meanwhile, Cambodian men’s team also managed to squeeze out a chinlone non-repetition secondary bronze medal behind gold winning Myanmar and second placed Laos.

The Myanmar 2013 gold medalist Ke Leng raised visions of a repeat performance in the women’s shooting event on the bowles alley when she comfortable led the field after the preliminary stage. But when it came to crunch time, She could not sustain her effort and was beaten in the semifinals by the eventual winner Nguyen Thi Thi of Vietnam 29-21. In the challenge round, the Vietnamese ace beat Alfat Annisa of Indonesia 29-22.

There was cheery news, however, from the men’s section where Sok Chanmean grabbed a silver medal in shooting. After beating Vangvone Bouadeng of Laos 37-27 to reach the final, Chanmean squared off against Thailand’s Sangkaew Thanakon, who kept his nerve in tight situations to run out a 42-37 victor.

FOOTBALL: Hit for a six

After a breezy 3-1 midweek win over the Philippines in their opening Pool A football encounter, Cambodia were routed 6-1 by Indonesia on Saturday. Coach Lee Tae Hoon’s men

will now face Singapore today in a crucial game that could have a marked bearing on the qualification for the next stage.

Cambodia’s defense collapsed in the second session after Indonesia crossed over with a 2-0 first-half cushion.

With a fluid midfield, keeping the attackers on their toes, Indonesia’s leading striker Syaifulloh Muchl scored a hat-trick with other three goals coming from Midfielders Nufiandani Ahmad, Pebrianto Wawan and Darmono Evan Dimas. The last of the Indonesian goals came deep into stoppage time.

Cambodia’s consolation goal in the second half was struck by captain Prak Mony Odom.

TENNIS: Philippines too good

Cambodia’s men’s national tennis team suffered a 0-3 loss at the hands of the Phillipines while the women’s team, making a historic debut in the SEA Games, went down fighting 1-2 to Indonesia.

The opening singles saw Phalkun Mam raise his game a notch in the second set but that was not enough to prevent Ruben Gonzales heading home to a 6-3, 7-5 win to give Philippines a 1-0 advantage.

Cambodia’s Davis Cup pivot Bun Kenny came back from a set down to force the decider on Jeson Patrombon, who closed out strongly to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

With the tie decided, Cambodia pitched in new recruit French Cambodian Delton Sophana Kim for his competition debut for the country. The soon-to-be-16 Delton partnered Long Samneang but the pair proved no match for Treat Huey and Francis Alcantara 6-4,6-1.

In the women’s team event, American-Cambodian Som Chenda made her first appearance for Cambodia. The 15-year-old from New York was completely out of depth as she went down 0-6,0-6 to Rompies Jessy of Indonesia in the opening singles.

French-born Cambodian Andrea Ka levelled the scores with a hard fought 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Tananta Lavinia in the second singles. However, Indonesia grabbed the decisive doubles with Damayanti Ayu and Sutjiadi Aldila beating Chenda and Ka 6-4, 6-0.

BOXING: Ven Ratha sights medal.

After pulling off a convincing win over Montalalu Vinky of Indonesia in the quarterfinals yesterday, Ven Ratha has lined himself for medal in the men’s light welter weight (64kg).

EQUESTRIAN

The Cambodian trio of Lon Sopheaktra, Ly Sovanachandara and Phat Makara failed to qualifty in the Dressage team competition.

RUGBY 7s

Malaysia routed Cambodia 52-0 in the men’s event. The Malaysians scored eight trys and six conversions.

ATHLETICS: Marathon hopes dashed

Hopes of a podium finish for Takizaki Kuniaki in the men’s marathon was dashed after the dapper Japanese comedian, who became a Cambodian citizen more than three years ago, could only finish sixth in a time of 2:42:39 nearly seven minutes behind the winner Soh Rui Yong Gui of Singapore.