Wiraphon the toast of the country
Shooter Wiraphon Mansing secured the first gold medal for Thailand at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta yesterday.
The 23-year-old was crowned champion in the men’s 10m air rifle SH1 after scoring 246.9 points to beat Abdulla Sultan Al Aryani of the United Arab Emirates by just 0.7 points.
“I am very happy to win Thailand’s first gold medal of this Asian Para Games. It is also my first Asian Para Games title,” Wiraphon said.
“I was very nervous in the final. I tried to do like I did in training. I trained for six months before the tournament.”
Thailand also won two silver and one bronze medals in table tennis.
Chalermpong Punpoo and Yuttajak Glinbanchuen lost in the men’s TT7 and men’s TT3 finals respectively while Wijittra Jaion had to settle for bronze in the women’s TT4.
Chalermpong said: “I am very happy although I lost in the final. This is my first Asian Para Games medal after I was eliminated in the first round at the previous Games in Incheon.”
Chalermpong will team up with Rungroj Thainiyom, the country’s most successful table tennis player at the Paralympics, in the doubles.
“We will try to reach the final,’’ he said. At press time last night, Thailand were 12th in the table with one gold, five silver and eight bronze medals.
China were runaway leaders with 32 gold medals, followed by South Korea (13) and Uzbekistan (12).
Thailand aim to finish as the best Southeast Asian nation. The Thais took home 21 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals from the 2014 Games in Incheon.
Thailand have sent a total of 237 athletes and 135 officials to Jakarta to compete in 14 sports, including archery, boccia, athletics, shooting, table tennis, wheelchair fencing and wheelchair tennis.
The Jakarta tournament started on Saturday and ends on Oct 13.