Cambodia’s hopes of capturing its first-ever gold medal at the 3rd Asian Youth Games 2025 in Bahrain came to an end last night after Kun Khmer fighters Chhong Visal and Om Sreypenh lost their respective final bouts.
Vath Chamroeun, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC), praised both athletes for their outstanding achievements. He noted that Cambodia had maintained honour, sportsmanship and unity while competing with the 44 other nations at the games.
Chamroeun described the silvers won by Chhong Visal and Om Sreypenh, along with two bronze medals from their Kun Khmer teammate Thorn Chanthou and pencak silat specialist Phouk Daniel, as a historical achievement for Cambodia at the Asian Youth Games. He added that some other Cambodian athletes were still competing in their respective sports, with hopes for more medals.
“So far, we have won two silver and two bronze medals, placing 24th out of 45 countries (now ranked 26th). We are waiting to see how the remaining Cambodian athletes perform. This is a historic milestone — Cambodia has never won a medal in the previous two Asian Youth Games,” he said, after Sunday night’s matches.
In the Kun Khmer finals, Visal lost to Uzbekistan’s Nurkhujaev Mazaffar by unanimous decision, with scores of 10–9, 10–9, and 10–9 , in the under-54kg division. On his way to the final, he defeated four strong opponents from different countries, starting from the round of 32 up to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Sreypenh also had to settle for silver, after losing by unanimous decision 3–0 to Kazakhstan’s Zhuminova Albina in the under-51kg division.
In earlier bouts, Chanthou earned a bronze medal in the under-51kg division after losing in the semifinals to Uzbekistan’s Turdiboev Asadbek on Saturday night. Daniel, a Pencak Silat athlete, secured Cambodia’s first ever games’ medal, a bronze, on October 20.
Unfortunately, the Kingdom’s table tennis, mixed martial arts, taekwondo (WT), gymnastics and 3×3 basketball ended their campaigns without medals. The weightlifting team also fell short of expectations.
The badminton, table tennis and swimming teams are set to begin competition tonight, October 27, while the wrestlers will be in action tomorrow. Meanwhile, the judo and jiu-jitsu squads only arrived in Bahrain on October 26 to prepare for their events.
