Cambodia’s contingent of 14 young athletes have so far collected four bronze medals at the ongoing 16th ASEAN University Games in Vientiane.

The modest group of students are participating in 10 events in five different sports. On Friday, the petanque mixed triples team of Ek Naroth, Mey Sopheak and female player Duong Dina won bronze after losing their semi-final to host nation Laos.

Seavmey Sorn then managed to finish third in the taekwondo welterweight 67kg women’s competition. The third bronze medal for the Kingdom was grabbed by Chhoeung Puthearim in the taekwondo bantamweight 53kg women’s class.

The team competition in men’s tennis turned out to be another successful event for Cambodia, with Long Samneang and his brother Long Chumnith guaranteeing the bronze by soundly beating Myanmar in the quarter-finals on Thursday. However, the pair were totally outclassed by Indonesia in the semis, losing both singles rubbers by the dreaded double bagels of 6-0, 6-0.

Cambodia now ranks eighth in the medal table above Brunei, Myanmar and East Timor. Malaysia leads the way with 51 medals in total at time of print, with Vietnam in hot pursuit on 40.

The games will close with a ceremony on Thursday. Cambodia has a chance to capture more medals in three categories – petanque women’s triples, petanque women’s shooting,  and tennis men’s singles featuring both Orn Sambath and Long Samneang.