Thammarat Wongcharoenyos, President of the Sports Association of Phuket joined Damrong Chaisena, Director of the Phuket office of the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT), and Rewat Areerob, President of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO) at an official ceremony at Ban Talat Nuea Provincial Administrative Organization School on Tuesday afternoon to address the athletes ahead of the competition.
The Region 4 section of the 49th National Games and 39th National Disabled Games will take place in Trang province from Aug 17-27 and Aug 24-29, respectively.
A total of 428 people from team Phuket will be involved in the National Games event, made up of 198 male athletes, 144 female athletes and 86 coaches and officials.
There will be 30 sports contested, including fencing, wushu, men’s indoor volleyball, sailing, athletics, futsal, karate-do, indoor handball, beach volleyball, rugby, table tennis, Go, bridge, gymnastics, extreme tennis, e-sports, swimming, jiu-jitsu, golf, basketball, cycling, badminton, football, petanque, amateur Thai boxing, snooker, Taekwondo and amateur boxing.
For the National Disabled Games, Phuket is sending a team of 49 people in total, consisting of 19 male athletes, 14 female athletes and 10 coaches and officials. There was no mention of the sports being contested at the National Disabled Games.
Both events will serve as southern region qualifers for the 49th National Games (Dec 9-19, 2024) and the National Disabled Games (Jan 15-21, 2025), both to be held in Chanthaburi Province.
The Sports Association of Phuket received a budget of B935,7000 from the SAT’s National Sports Development Fund, Sports Authority of Thailand to support the athletes and their teams at both events, Mr Thammarat confirmed at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Also present at the ceremony were: Prasit Sanit and Supasak Nun Sang, Vice Presidents of the Sports Association of Phuket; Warin Khaothong, Secretary-General of the Sports Association of Phuket; and relevant officials.
Mr Rewat, who serves as an official representative of the athletes of Phuket Province, delivered a speech wishing all the very best of luck to all athletes and their supporting teams, hoping that they would do themselves and Phuket proud by performing to the best of their ability while adhering to the highest standards of sporting professionalism and fair play at all times.