Thai Sprinter Bew Eyes Asian 100m Record After Gold
Thai sprinter Bew Phuripon Bunsoon won gold in the 100m at the Asian Games with a time of 9.90 seconds and now targets breaking Su Bingtian's Asian record of 9.83 seconds.
Bew Phuripon Bunsoon, a 20-year-old Thai national team sprinter and gold medalist in the 100-meter race at the 20th Asian Games, has set his next goal on breaking the Asian record and hopes to make it a Thai record. Although his start was not ideal, he sprinted to the finish line first and broke his own record again at 9.90 seconds, lowering the Asian Games record after posting 9.91 seconds in the semi-final.
After the race, Bew acknowledged feeling excited, which affected his start, but was delighted that he ultimately succeeded and won the Asian Games gold medal. He said: "I'm very happy to have won the gold medal and set a new record again. I'm a bit disappointed about my start because I got too excited. I'm happy to have brought the gold medal to Thailand. At first I wasn't thinking about it—I was in my own world, focusing on the form we trained for, trying to give my all without pressure, not looking around, just looking ahead."
Bew also discussed his next goal, aiming to break the Asian record of Chinese runner Su Bingtian, who set 9.83 seconds at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He stated: "It would be good to be number one in Asia. I'm happy to see that we're number one in Asia, but I'll keep working hard and training to get as close as possible to the Asian record. We've taken another step forward now. We'll continue looking at that goal—the Olympics. One day we should be able to win an Olympic gold medal. And I definitely want to break the Asian record because I want Thailand to own the Asian record again."
When asked about training with his American coach Jeannie Bradley, the 20-year-old runner explained: "The coach focused on the first 30 meters in the semi-final, asking me to try to take longer strides and drive hard. He said the middle and final sections we can already compete in—we just need to fix this part. It was the same in the final, but my reaction might have been a bit slow. It was unusual and I didn't think my start would improve—I even felt like I might start worse. But the result came out great."
He thanked his coach Jeannie for pushing and believing in him, his family and mother for their support, the athletics association and its president for their encouragement and for selecting Coach Jeannie, and Samitivej Hospital Sukhumvit for managing his injuries during training.
When asked if he still has three more events remaining at the Asian Games, Bew said: "I have three more races: the 200 meters, the 4x100 relay, and I need to check if my body can handle the mixed 4x100 relay. But I'll try to run them. I feel we're fit and we'll try to win every medal. If three gold medals are possible, that would be great."
