The Cambodian pencak silat team — which recently made history by winning its first bronze medal at the 3rd Asian Youth Games 2025 in Bahrain — has expressed renewed confidence in securing more medals for Cambodia at the 14th ASEAN School Games 2025 in Brunei.
The ASEAN School Games will take place from November 20 to 29. With the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, the Cambodia Pencak Silat Federation (CPSF) has sent a delegation of eight members, including two coaches, four male athletes and two female athletes. Among them is Phouk Daniel, bronze medallist from the 2025 Asian Youth Games.
During the team’s send-off at Techo International Airport on Tuesday, Our Dara, CPSF secretary-general, recalled Daniel’s historic achievement, when he won bronze in the 51–55 kg category on October 20.
With this success in mind, Dara expressed confidence in the team that will compete at the ASEAN School Games.
“As a federation, I firmly hope that our athletes will bring home excellent results for the country,” he said.
Assistant coach Oeun Rasmey affirmed that all six athletes are well-prepared and fully understand the competition rules.
“We expect to win medals for our nation because our athletes have trained hard and possess strong technical skills, and they also understand the competition regulations,” he told The Post.
However, he remained somewhat concerned about the athletes’ mental toughness, as this is their first time competing at an ASEAN-level event, where all 11 participating countries are strong rivals.
“Every country will be a tough opponent because they have trained longer than us. Their skill level and competition experience are slightly higher. But we will do our best to compete and make our nation proud,” he said.
Rasmey added that their main objective is to win medals, but if that proves too difficult, they will still aim to minimise point gaps and avoid heavy losses.
“We have prepared both offensive strategies to win and defensive strategies to avoid losing by too many points,” he continued.
Rasmey expressed high expectations for Daniel, but noted that other athletes are also potential medal winners.
“Daniel is our key hope for winning a medal, and we have other athletes with capabilities close to his. We hope to win medals,” he added.
