Talented youngster’s death shocks basketball
Kao Kanaly along with members of the national basketball team presented 2 million riel ($500) on behalf of the federation to the bereaved family.
Sean Borath, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports, CBF President Sean Borath and Ouk Sethycheat, the general director of the Department of Sports, conveyed their condolences to the family of Chanraksmey, whose untimely death brought back sad memories of national team member Phal Sorphor, who was killed in a motorcycle accident just days before he was scheduled to leave for the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia.
Much in the way Chanraksmey spent his time on the court playing the game he loved until just hours before his death, Sorphor, who sported the No5 shirt for Cambodia, had just returned from China, where the national team had taken part in the 4th China-Asean invitational tournament.
He was on his way to Prey Veng province to seek the bless- ings of his family before leaving for Indonesia.
While the inexplicable deaths of young sports men and women around the world are not uncommon, every such incident heightens concerns about health monitoring and reminds sports fraternities of the wisdom of an ounce of prevention outweighing a pound of cure.
It is in this sad context that Nigerian footballer Mene Wilson has to be remembered forever by the Cambodian football community.
In his death on the pitch, apparently after suffering a heart attack playing for the now defunct Prek Pra Keila FC 26 minutes into their match with the then Military Police-side Preah Khan Reach on May 8, 2010, the 18-year-old Wilson forced reforms in the way pitchside medical emergencies are dealt with today.
On the day he collapsed it took a long time for an ambulance to take him to hospital, but today there is one on standby at the stadium. There is also a doctor on hand, something tragically unavailable to Wilson on that ill-fated evening.
He is resting in peace in Cambodia – but his death has not been in vain.