An activity of wrestling training ahead of the 2022 Southeast Asian Wrestling Championships at the hall of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) from December 16-18. PHOTO SUPPLIED
The Cambodia Wrestling Federation (CWF) – through the support of the Cambodian SEA Games Organising Committee (CAMSOC) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport – is preparing for the 2022 Southeast Asian Wrestling Championships at the hall of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) from December 16-18.
For the event on its home soil, the CWF has strengthened the resources of athletes, referees, judges, coaches and information technology (IT) officials as the federation opened four separate training courses starting on December 7, with training for international refereeing, international coaching, IT training courses as well as joint training camps with participating countries.
All three training courses and the joint training camps are being conducted in collaboration with United World Wrestling (UWW). The instructors for each session are provided by the UWW, which has also sent its professional officials to assist in the preparations and the judging of the Southeast Asian Wrestling Championship, as the event has been organised as a test to prepare for hosting the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
Casey Barnett, vice-president of the CWF, said the technical officials and referee-judges sent by the UWW to help with the ASEAN Championship are from Switzerland, Iraq, India, Tunisia, Poland, Korea, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, France and the US.
"This Southeast Asian Wrestling Championship is very important for us to prepare to be able to manage the competitions smoothly and efficiently at the SEA Games because we will gain a lot of experience from hosting this event.
“It will help to organise a successful competition for technical officials, referees, judges, coaches as well as handle things like transport and budget management. It is a pre-event for the SEA Games, to ensure that we can manage them successfully," he said.
Meanwhile, five Cambodian wrestling referees – Nuth Sereyroth, Yeung Sophannara, Nong Krisna, Chea Rattanak and Phon Sopheach – have just successfully undergone the theoretical study phase in the international refereeing training course and will now referee in real competitions at this event. If successful, they will have an opportunity to become international referees.
The CWF has prepared a total of 26 Cambodian wrestlers, including eight women, to compete for medals in the Southeast Asian Wrestling Championship, where they will wrestle athletes from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos and Indonesia.
The athletes representing the seven countries will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in three weight categories. There will be medical checkups and weigh-ins before the competitions on each day.
According to the schedule already set, from 10:30am to 6pm on Friday December 16, Greco-Roman wrestling matches will be held for all weight categories. Then during the same hours on December 17, there will be women's freestyle wrestling matches across all weight categories. And on December 18, the men's freestyle wrestling competition will be held for all weight categories.
UWW coach Vincent Aka-Akesse, who led the seven-country joint training camp from December 8-15, said the technical level and ability of the Cambodian athletes is good, adding that if they intensify their training in advance of the 32nd SEA Games they can expect to compete for medals.
"As experts, when making comparisons of the level of other countries in Southeast Asia, we know that Vietnam is one of the strongest countries in the region and we were really happy that Cambodia brought the one gold medal … from the recent SEA Games in Vietnam, because it shows that there is a good level of talent and that we can help develop it.
"We will also be proud if Cambodia wins medals because we are here to help the Cambodian coaches as well. We really want to see them compete because they are the hosts and we would be very proud if Cambodia wins gold medals in the Southeast Asian Wrestling Championship, so if Cambodia wins we'll consider that a part of our achievements," he said.
Meanwhile, Barnett, who is also vice-chairman of the organising committee of the event, stated: "The strongest opponent for Cambodia is Vietnam, because Vietnam won the most gold medals from the 31st SEA Games in May. In 2022, Cambodia won one gold, one silver and 4 bronze medals, but in this ASEAN Championship, we hope that our athletes will win more gold medals, and that the total number of medals will exceed 10."
