TAEKWONDO: Two young Phuket athletes have been awarded official certificates of honour in recognition of their achievements in the sport of taekwondo.
Thanakrit Yodrak and Veerapat Krairiksh attended an official ceremony at Provincial Hall last Friday (June 30) where they were met by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew and President of the Phuket Sports Association, Thammawat Wongcharoenyot, among other officials.
Receiving the two young athletes in the Governor’s lounge, Governor Woonciew praised their respective efforts and extended appreciation for bringing great pride to the country and Phuket in particular before presenting them each with an honourary certificate.
Governor Narong additionally extended thanks to the respective coaching teams and official trainers who support Thanakrit and Veerapat to enable them to achieve their success.
Thanakrit, 19, won a gold medal in the men’s 58kg weight class at the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia, which ran from May 5-17.
Prior to this he also won gold in the same discipline at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May 2022 when he comfortably beat Cambodia’s Youdeth Sam 34-5 to win the title in what was his SEA Games debut.
“I am very happy to win gold in my first SEA Games. I trained very hard – three times a day, two or three hours each session,” Thanakrit said at the time, before giving an indication of his future aspirations: “This is just the beginning as I have a bigger target – I want to compete in the Olympics,” he explained.
Thanakrit previously won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Cadet Taekwondo Championships in Egypt and gold medals in both the Belgium Youth Open in 2018 and the China Youth Open 2019 in China.
He also won a silver medal in the men’s 58kg class at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Chuncheon, South Korea in June 2022 and will be representing his country at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, between Sept 23 and Oct 8 this year.
Next up for Thanakrit, however, is the Muju Taekwondowon 2023 World Taekwondo Grand-Prix Challenge in Muju, South Korea, from July 14-16.
Veerapat, who trains at Dragon Gym in Phuket and competes in the men’s 54kg weight class, picked up a gold medal in the 2022 Vietnam International Taekwondo Championships and a gold at the 2023 Thailand National Taekwondo Championships last month.
Veerapat also won gold in the men’s 58kg weight class at the G H Bank Taekwondo Championship of Thailand 2023, which was held in Chonburi in March and April of this year. He received the outstanding male athlete over the age of 18 award for his efforts.
Both Thanakrit and Veerapat will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the darling of Thai taekwondo Panipak Wongpattanakit, the top-ranked athlete in the women’s 49kg weight class. Panipak was the first Thai medal winner at the Tokyo 2022 Olympic Games and the first ever from Thailand to win a gold medal in the sport of taekwondo at Olympic level. Her triumph in the Japanese capital was also the only gold medal Thailand won at the 2022 Games.
The 25-year-old won her fourth successive gold medal at the SEA Games in Cambodia and made history in Rome, Italy, last month when she claimed her 10th overall gold in the World Taekwondo Grand Prix, the first athlete to achieve the feat, which also placed her at the top of the charts of all time female winners.
Panipak attributes much of her success to acclaimed coach Choi Young-Seok, a South Korean who received Thai citizenship in June 2022 after 20 years coaching taekwondo athletes in the Kingdom.
Coach Choi has also been instrumental in helping Thanakrit develop, something the Phuketian hopes can continue as he strives for further success at the highest level.
