The early bird gets the worm…but the late girl gets The World Games gold
It was a day to remember for the South East Asian nations. Brunei and Cambodia are both participating in The World Games for the very first time, and incredibly their athletes in Wushu and Boules both struck gold. Even more remarkably, both golden athletes got into their sport by a complete accident.
When she was a school girl, Basma Lachkar wanted to do some after school sport, however she was late getting to the sign up event and found that the only sports class that had any places left was Wushu, so that was the one she joined. You probably have seen Wushu, even if you have not heard of it. In any martial arts movie, you will see a sequence where the villain leaps high into the air, the action freezes and the actor appears to defy gravity - that is a pure Wushu routine. Just as remarkable as those cinematic leaps is Lachkar's own meteoric rise in the sport. Her talent has enabled her to represent Brunei and medal twice at the South East Asian Games. Now her remarkable journey brings her to Birmingham and culminates in a first ever gold for Brunei at their maiden games.
Fellow debutants Cambodia also earned the right to have their national anthem played at The World Games podium. This is perhaps the most remarkable story of the Birmingham edition of The World Games, for both country and athlete Ouk Sreymom. Cambodia and world class sport are not a natural mix, The Asian country has never won a medal of any kind at The Olympics and have only topped the podium three times at The Asian Games. It appears that Petanque is the only sport where Cambodia has ever been able to claim a World Champion. The first time that Sreymom claimed a World Title, Cambodia went crazy. There was a motorcade on her return and the President of Cambodia ordered that the hero Boules player be awarded $25,000. Sreymom came to Birmingham, as the only Cambodian to have ever won multiple world championships, having regained the title last year. Strange to think that Cambodia's most successful athlete may never have taken up the sport at all, except for a chance encounter with an observant coach. Cambodia's national Petanque coach spotted Sreymom throwing fruit outside the National Stadium, realised that she had potential and offered to train her.
Fast forward to Birmingham 2022 and Ouk Sreymom is on the verge of delivering the greatest moment in Cambodian sporting history. She is set to play Rebekah Howe in the gold medal final. The American with Sioux heritage has also had an unusual road to the final; installing a Petanque court in her bar had clearly paid off. Howe had a tense one point win over her Thai opponent in the semi final to create her own piece of history - the first American to ever get to a Petanque final. If you have never seen Petanque, the precision required to make a scoring shot is amazing. The closest comparison would be a golfer chipping into the hole every time. It was Howe who made the better start, picking up two maximum fives to give her a 13-3 advantage. At all times though Sreymom remained so calm, so focused, so precise and clawed her way back into the match and then the lead. It was during the second half of the match that Ouk's prowess began to be shown. Howe's shots whilst good were imprecise and her scoreboard failed to tick over. The Cambodian regularly locked onto the target ball and her maximum scores gave her an unassailable lead. Thus, for the first time ever at a global multi-sports event the Cambodian national anthem rang out. Ouk Sreymom (and the national Petanque coach!) the whole of Cambodia wants to thank you for giving everyone the most amazing moment of The World Games!
Stick it to them
Rebekah Howe is not the only Native American to compete in Birmingham, In fact in Lacrosse there is an entire team of athletes with Native American heritage. As The World Games only allows countries to participate in the multi-sports event, this presented a challenge for lacrosse, which always honours the Iroquois founders of their sport with a guaranteed World Championship berth. In an outstanding act of sportsmanship, the Ireland team declined to accept their Birmingham invitation, requesting that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy be allocated their place. All true lacrosse fans have been delighted to see them compete at The World Games. There was not so much elation for the home fans at the conclusion of the gold medal game in the men's competition, as Canada thumped USA.
The Stars and Stripes was raised though at the conclusion of the Roller Hockey tournament where the Americans narrowly beat Czech Republic 2-1. The Czech goal scorer Oscar Flynn has had an interesting journey to picking up his silver medal. He was born in Burnley in the North of England moved to Czech Republic to fulfill his dream of playing professional ice hockey, qualified for the national team through residency, and here he is in Birmingham strapping on his inline skates. Sweden survived an unexpected last minute comeback to claim gold for the second consecutive edition of The World Games. After an empty net goal gave the Swedes a commanding 6-3 lead, it appeared to be game over. However Finland rallied and managed to claim two buzzer beaters.
Brian Salmon for The World Games
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee. The 11th edition of The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and over 100 countries will take part in The World Games.
