The coaches and athletes of the Kingdom’s Kun Khmer team have shared their determination to medal at this month’s Asian Youth Games in Bahrain. Their goal is to raise Cambodia’s profile and showcase the cultural identity of Kun Khmer to the international community.
Coach Thun Sophea is leading the squad. He noted that the nine selected athletes are all less than 16 years old, most of them with no overseas competition experience. Nonetheless, he believed that their hard work in a recent three-month training camp would pay off with strong results.
“Before the camp, our athletes had already trained for several years, so our preparation is more than sufficient. Even though we don’t yet know what results we will get, we hope to win and bring success to our country,” he said.
The Kun Khmer competition at the 3rd Asian Youth Games in Bahrain, scheduled for October 22–31, requires athletes to wear head, elbow, torso and shin protection, similar to the format used at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
“With protective gear like this, it’s not very dangerous. We just need to build up physical strength more because the gear makes you tire faster. And we must also improve our techniques because the competition focuses on scoring by hitting specific targets. It’s not about sheer aggression or knocking out opponents,” explained Sophea.
As a highly accomplished trainer who has developed many winning athletes in past international events and the SEA Games, Sophea dreams of seeing Cambodian athletes win gold and elevate the nation’s reputation.
“In my heart, what I want most from this Asian Youth competition is a gold medal to bring honour to our country. We will use every means possible to get a gold medal. If we don’t win it, it will still be a valuable experience — but each of us going to the competition is strongly focused on gold,” he said.
Fighter Thun Sreypenh, who has competed locally 26 times and has also fought in Japan, China and Greece, is not certain she can fulfil her coach’s dream of winning gold. She said she doesn’t know which international opponents she will face or their level of ability. However, she has set her own target and is fully prepared to compete for the nation.
“My hope is to at least get a bronze medal. If there’s a chance, then we’ll think about going to the finals for gold or silver. We don’t yet know which countries we will face or their skill levels, but I’m already fully prepared for this kind of protective-gear competition because we’ve been training this format every day,” she said.
At the same time, she was concerned about making weight — having to cut from 54 kg to 51 kg for the games. However, she has shown strong determination to overcome this challenge and achieve good results, setting a good example for the next generation of Cambodian athletes who will compete at the 4th Asian Youth Games in 2029, which Cambodia will host.
“I want to show our Khmer martial art to the world, and I especially want to get good results because in 2029 Cambodia will be hosts. We want to achieve strong results now to inspire our athletes who will compete when we host,” she explained.
