Bou Samnang did not receive gold medal as claim
After the video of Cambodian athlete Bou Samnang struggling to run under the heavy rain at the SEA Games, she received a lot of attention from the public who claimed that the athlete won a difficult gold medal. There have been a number of recent reactions. However, Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that the above claims were misleading.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
A claim on Monday claimed that Cambodian runner Bou Samnang won a gold medal after she struggled to run under the heavy rain in the 5,000-meter race. Such claims have been shared more than 10,000 times by Khmer-speaking social media users. There have also been comments questioning the validity of the claim and the photo.
The following is a snapshot captured from May 09 stating that“Sister Bou Samnang won a hard gold medal in the 5,000 meters in the rain”.
Such claims have also been widely circulated on Facebook by other social media users. See the full content via the links here: 1 (archived), 2 (archived), 3 (archived).
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has started checking this image and claim through Google Reverse Image Search and other reliable news which led us to find the following facts.
A full view of the competition in the 5,000-meter running event at the Morodok Techo National Stadium on May 08, 2023 was posted and published by Channel News Asia (CNA) recently. The following video clip shows the Vietnamese athlete Nguyen Thi Oanh finishing first with a total time of about 17 minutes while Cambodia’s Bou Samnang reached the final in 11th place with a total time of almost 23 minutes.
CNA News Report | Archived Link
The video clip below also shows the full scene of the 5,000m race that Cambodia’s Bou Samnang completed in 11th place and the gold medalist goes to Nguyen Thi Oanh which had completed in about 17 minutes.
Similarly, the official Facebook page of Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed that the Cambodian athlete did not qualify to get any medals. However, he announced to provide $10,000 to encourage her high commitment.
The following is an image captured from Hun Sen’s Facebook page that states “The interesting thing is the athlete, Bou Samnang, runs under the rain until the end, even though she is not qualified to get any medals”.
Although she was not ranked for any medal, Bou Samnang was impressed by her hard work and determination that She did not give up running even under a heavy rain.
Below is a full video clip of Cambodian runner Bou Samnang running in the rain, despite she completed in 11th place at the end.
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia found that the above claim was misleading. Cambodia’s Bou Samnang did not win a gold medal in the 5,000 meters race at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia as claimed.
