Rungroj leads Thais to gold

Rungroj leads Thais to gold

Thai table tennis star Rungroj Thainiyom, second left, and teammates celebrate their win.
Thai table tennis star Rungroj Thainiyom, second left, and teammates celebrate their win.

Kuala lumpur: Rungroj Thainiyom led Thailand to the table tennis team gold medal at the Asean Para Games yesterday.

Rungroj, Suriyon Thapaeng and Yutthana Namsanga proved too strong for Indonesia in their final round-robin match in the class 6-7.

The Thais sealed a comfortable 3-0 victory with Rungroj winning both his singles and doubles matches.

Thailand won all three matches in the competition to claim their seventh successive gold medal in the event.

Rungroj, the 2012 Paralympic champion, is seven-time defending champion in the individual competition.

Powerlifting champion Narong Kaesanan.

"I am confident that I will win the individual title for the eighth time in a row," he said.

"This is a warm-up tournament for me before the 2018 Asian Para Games in Indonesia."

In powerlifting, Narong Kaesanan won gold in the 65kg class while Chuchat Sukcharoen was champion in the 59kg division.

Narong lifted 171kg to beat defending champion Nguyen Thanh Xuan from Vietnam who could only managed 170kg.

Narong, who moved up from the 59kg category, has now won seven successive gold medals at the Asean Para Games.

"I thought this gold medal would be mine although the Vietnamese was the title-holder and this was the first time that I competed in the 65kg class," Narong said.

"I feel relieved after winning my seventh consecutive gold medal."

In athletics, Supachai Songpinit took gold in the men's 400m T11 while Apisit Taprom won gold in the men's 800m T37.

In swimming, Tanongsak Hitakhun finished first in the men's 100m freestyle S11.

Thailand are fourth in the medal standings with 13 gold medals, behind Indonesia (37), Malaysia (31) and Vietnam (18).

The ninth Asean Para Games end on Saturday.

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