Thailand’s Soraoat Dapbang won the men’s 200m at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games.
After a dramatic final in Phnom Penh, Dapbang crossed the line first on Monday, May 8, in 20.62 seconds with Vietnam’s Ngoc Nghia Ngan second in 20.84, ahead of Lalu Zohri of Indonesia (21.02).
Teen sensation Puripol Boonson’s title defence went up in smoke as he pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury in the last 50m.
Boonson had grabbed the sprint double at last year’s SEA Games in Hanoi and was one of the stars to watch at this year’s Games.
“I was in great form coming into the SEA Games and I was confident of taking the gold medal having qualified well,” said Boonson.
“I had started the race well, but in the final 50m I felt my hamstring pop, so I decided to just drop down and not aggravate the injury. I am devasted, but I will get back from this hopefully in time to prepare well for the Asian Games.”
Indonesia’s star sprinter Zohri was relieved to be on the podium after an injury-riddled season and hopes he can turn up for the men’s 100m.
“I am grateful for this result, because it is the first time I ran the 200m outside of the country. I had a nagging thigh injury, which is why I was bandaged up and it was worrying in the beginning, but I managed to complete the race.
“The weather was also bothering me a bit, but this was a good warm up for the 100m,” Zohri, the 100m world under-20 champion from 2018 said in an interview with Olympics.com.
Pouring rains later forced a delay of some of the track and field events, including the men’s pole vault that was pushed to Tuesday. World bronze medallist Ernest John Obiena is tipped to win his third SEA Games pole vault gold medal.
