Cambodian team appeal for funds
PHNOM PENH: A top Cambodian sporting official appealed yesterday for sponsors to help the kingdom’s tiny Olympic team look slick when they compete at Athens in August.
“We want our athletes to look good in their uniforms at the Games next month, but we lack funds,” a resigned Meas Sarin, National Olympic Committee of Cambodia secretary-general, said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are footing the bill for travel, food and accommodation, but not outfits for the Southeast Asian country’s four athletes, three coaches and nine officials, he said.
The official said that a Thai company has paid for basic sports outfits for swimmers Hem Kiri and Ket Sivan and runners Sou Titlinda and Phouk Sopheak, who will by vying to win Cambodia’s first-ever medal.
But their dream outfits, along with kits for the rest of the team, would ring in at more than US$1,500 and no one is offering to pay.
The team are due to leave for Athens on Aug 8. The Games run from Aug 13-29.
Cambodia have only a handful of athletes, hardly any qualified sports professionals and bare-bones sport facilities – a legacy of the brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime and decades of conflict that ended just six years ago. – AFP
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