Peter Matthews — On the fourth day of the SEA Games competition in Phnom Penh, Myanmar won two gold medals in its native sport of chinlone, one for the men’s team and one for the women’s team.

Playing in Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium, the Myanmar teams lived up to their reputation for high levels of skill in this traditional sport, where to achieve victory a team needs both athleticism and style.

In chinlone, a team of six people work together to keep a rattan or plastic ball in the air, principally using their feet. Points are awarded for how many times they can pass the ball successfully, and for making difficult or stylistic moves. The clock counts down from 10 minutes while the teams try to score as high as they can, and in the SEA Games they are given two such sessions in one day of competition.

Today, the Myanmar women’s team scored 101 points, and the men scored 93. Today’s victory means that the chinlone squads are responsible for 20 per cent of Myanmar’s gold medals at the games so far.

In women’s chinlone, Thailand won the silver medal and Cambodia the bronze. In the men’s division, Laos took the silver, and the bronze was shared by Thailand and Cambodia.

A tougher day for women’s volleyball

Meanwhile, in the Main Hall of the Olympic Stadium, Myanmar’s women’s volleyball team struggled to find their footing against the powerful Malaysia squad. Myanmar had a series of strong serves, in particular from the T.Z. Aung (number 17) who used her height to hammer the ball into the opposing court, but in the end, it was not enough to keep them from losing all three sets, 16-24, 14-25, and 13-25.

Many observers believe the Myanmar teams would be stronger if not for the decision of some athletes to boycott the SEA Games due to the coup in the country.