Thailand's World champion and Athens Olympics weightlifting gold medallist
Pawina Thongsuk, who is recuperating from a knee injury, said her chances of
helping Thailand break a 40-year gold-medal drought in the sport at Asiad were
50-50, according to a local media Thursday.
Pawina was among the 139 athletes, including shooters, sepak takraw players
and weightlifters, traveling to Doha, Qatar for the15th Asian Games Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Thai is a gold-medal hopeful in Doha. Chaiya Sukjinda was the
last Thai weightlifter to win an Asiad gold in the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Since then, no Thai lifter has made it that far, Bangkok-based English daily The
Nation said.
Four years ago in Busan, South Korea, Thai weightlifters returned with three
silver medals, including one from Pawina in the women's 69kg category.
"It's hard to say that the gold medal is a lock. I have picked up this knee
injury during training and it has hampered my preparations," Pawina was quoted
by The Nation as saying.
"The team doctor says I must spray the pain-killer on the competition day, on
December 4," she said.
Pawina admitted that the Chinese team would be hard to beat. She cited Ouyang
Xiaofang, who captured three gold medals for the 63kg category at the recent
World Championships in the Dominican Republic and is expected to contest the
63kg category at the Doha Asiad, will come out as a strong competitor.
Pawina, who landed the Best Female Athlete of the Year 2005 honor from the
International Weightlifting Federation, has won in all the major
competitions.
