Preah Sihanouk governor Kuoch Chamroeun said the Kingdom’s coastal provinces are now ready to host all of the scheduled events for the 2023 SEA Games, which take place in May.
Preah Sihanouk province will be hosting three events: Sailing, beach volleyball and jet skiing.
Chamroeun said the province has prepared the infrastructure and has a security and public order plan in place already for next month.
“These sports will show the potential of our province as we have beaches and coastal waters that are favourable for the athletes to use for competitions,” he said.
Preah Sihanouk has actually hosted competitions in all three sports in the past during the Sea Festivals in 2016 and 2022 as well as the 2022 SEA Sailing Championship.
“For the upcoming SEA Games, both the technical teams and local authorities have arranged to maintain public order, security and the beaches. I think it will not be difficult because we have prior experience and we are good at collaboration. The only concern is the weather because we once experienced weather problems during such events before,” he noted.
For the 2023 SEA Games, sailing will be the first event held from May 1-8, with nine categories: Five for men, one for women and three for mixed male and female teams.
After that will be the men’s and women’s beach volleyball tournaments from May 11-16, followed by jet skiing from May 13-16, which has six categories to compete in.
The beach volleyball court at Poy Chumteav Mao Beach in Koki village of Bit Traing commune in Prey Nop district has also been upgraded to make it more suitable, especially to ensure good safety conditions for participating athletes.
Chamroeun said natural beaches tend to accumulate debris on them like plant or even sharp objects like glass, therefore the province has dug the sand to a depth of 4cm to remove any such items from the surface.
“Our beaches are natural and we never planned to convert them into volleyball courts, but I have recently received technical guidance from our committee to make the preparations to do so according to the required standards,” he said.
