HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Sitthi takes back the world crown

Asian Under-19 cricket tournament starts next week

FLCC out-foxed by Prem Panthers

Sitthi takes back the world crown

The role model of Thai bodybuilding, Sitthi Charoenrith, was able to take back his world title at the recently completed 1st World Men’s Bodybuilding Championships, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Thailand’s Sitthi Charoenrith (center) is congratulated on stage after winning the 80 kg class at the 1st World Men’s Bodybuilding Championships in Dubai, U.A.E. (Photo/TBBA)
During the competition, held from 3rd – 8th November, Thai bodybuilders won 1 gold and 2 bronzes in total; the two bronze medallists being Somkid Sumethovejjakul and Jerapan Pongkham in the 65kg and 60 kg categories respectively.
Sitthi’s victory in the 80 kg bodybuilding category came after he was able to beat his rival Moharram Panahi of Iran, the gold medalist in the 80 kg bodybuilding category in the 2009 Asian Championships held in August this year.
Sitthi said that he had dreamt of this victory and had spent most of the time training intensively and even thought at one point that he could have a heart attack during the competition.
“I have been in a stressful situation for over 3 years as I wished to reclaim my world champion’s title. I took the most serious training ever. I cut the water for 3 days and took a long sauna to get all remaining water out before competing on stage. I might get a heart attack from these methods. However the result is worth it,” he said.
Thailand’s elite bodybuilders will now have a short break before resuming their training programme in the new year. In 2010, Sitthi hopes to gain further success at the 2nd Asian Beach Games organised from December 8-16, 2010 in Muscat, Oman and the 2010 World Bodybuilding Championships. He is, however, not sure how long he will be able to stay at the top level.
“I’m getting older and I still have problem with backache. A heavy training schedule is not good for me in the long-term period but I still wish to compete in more bodybuilding or fitness champions for Thailand before quitting for good. Then I will support newcomers as a coach,” said the Thai star.
Sitthi, a native of Surin and known publicly as “Oh” for his nickname, also dreams to make bodybuilding more popular in his motherland: “I plan to set up a charity project to teach bodybuilding and fitness sport to children in Surin province and also raise funds for needy children in my hometown,” he said.”

Asian Under-19 cricket tournament starts next week

Saudi Arabia (seen here batting in green at the Prem Oval) were the last winners of the Asian International Under-19 tournament held in January 2008 in Chiang Mai. (Photo courtesy Asian Cricket Council)

From December 7 until the 18, the Asian International Under-19 tournament will be held at the Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club and the Prem Oval, part of the Prem Tinsulanonda International School. Eight countries will be represented at the event, namely Kuwait, Thailand, Maldives, China, Brunei, Bahrain, Myanmar and Iran. Thailand have been placed in Group B alongside Maldives, Bahrain and Iran.
Two matches will be played each day and everyone is welcome to come along, support the players and enjoy some top class cricket.
The group games will be played in the following order: Dec. 9, Kuwait v Myanmar at Prem Oval, Thailand v Iran at Gymkhana; Dec. 10, Brunei v China at Prem Oval, Bahrain v Maldives at Gymkhana; Dec. 11, Thailand v Bahrain at Prem Oval, Brunei v Kuwait at Gymkhana; Dec. 12, Iran v Maldives at Prem Oval, China v Myanmar at Gymkhana; Dec. 13, Brunei v Myanmar at Prem Oval, Bahrain v Iran at Gymkhana; Dec. 14, Thailand v Maldives at Prem Oval, China v Kuwait at Gymkhana.
The semi-finals, play-off matches and final will be held over the period December 16-18.

FLCC out-foxed by Prem Panthers

Paul Middleton
Last weekend marked the opening game of the Chiang Mai cricket league, and an opportunity for the Prem Panthers to welcome the FLCC to the Prem Oval based at the Prem Tinsulanonda International School campus. FLCC won the toss and elected to field first, on a pitch that looked to be in reasonable start of season condition after a long off-season period.

Mukesh Saraff was the star of the match with a 5-wicket haul.

The game started well for the visitors who took their first wicket early on, taking Mukesh Saraff from the crease by LBW. Next into bat was Christopher Dickerson, Prem school teacher and Panthers regular, who put in a fantastic innings to steady the Prem ship. Christopher batted out the majority of Prem’s innings while those around him continued to clock up the runs and build a formidable score, having scored 38 himself. Of particular note are the academy players Jigme Singye and Thinley Jamtsho who scored 93 and 56 respectively.
The Prem batting performance remained strong until a middle order collapse resulting from a combination of aggressive bowling and poor batting slowed the run rate down. Nevertheless, such was the quality of batting from the top order batsmen, that Prem were able to conclude their innings with a highly respectable 243 runs from their allotted 40 over period.
Lunchtime passed and the teams returned to the field of play for FLCC to chase the 243 total that was required to win the game. Assisted by what was a helpful bowler’s wicket, the first batsman fell early in the innings as Thinley found the edge of the Foxy player’s bat which carried through to the slips off the wicket keepers glove. This opened the floodgates as many more wickets dropped in quick succession through the incredible bowling display put on by both Thinley and fellow fast bowler, Anshu Tewari. The demolition continued as Mukesh looked to leave his own mark on the game and this he did in a spectacular fashion by taking five wickets at a cost of only 16 runs.
Eventually FLCC were bowled out for 59 after a seventeen over innings, which was more indicative of the Prem bowling campaign than a negative reflection of their opponent’s batting display. However, this is only the first game of the new season and there is much more cricket to played yet. For a full list of this seasons fixtures, please visit http://cricket.premcenter.org.

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