The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Bunting, Harmill crowned king and queen of Bokor Mountain” plus 9 more

Ever popular Cambodian long-distance runner Hem Bunting carried his reputation to a bloodless victory yesterday in the inaugural Thansur Bokor International Half Marathon, a charity run jointly sponsored by Thansur Highland Resort and the Sokha Group of Hotels to raise funds for the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital.

As many as 550 runners, including 80 from overseas, figured in four different categories in the country's first of its kind mountain run in pleasant weather conditions in Kampot province. The hairpin bends, climbs and slopes along the asphalt road providing participants a spectacular view of forestry and heritage sites.

An SEA Games silver medalist and the winner of multiple half marathons in the Kingdom, Bunting set a tempo of his own and there seemed no prospect of anyone catching him the moment he hit the front, even as the others were sorting themselves out well within the first half a mile.

Never before had Bunting attempted a competitive mountain run, although he trained at high altitudes in Kenya last year, the experience of which clearly stood him in good stead in tackling this challenging route.

"Speed was not a factor. The uphill climbs were quite difficult but the weather was fine and the road very good. So it was indeed an exciting experience," Bunting, who clocked in a rather leisurely 1hr 22min 34sec compared to some of his faster times in the past, told the Post.

"I never look back to see who my rivals are. I always stick to my pre-race plan and set myself a target for every kilometre. I happily managed to do that."

The 27-year-old also confirmed his participation in the Angkor Wat Half Marathon in Siem Reap on December 1.

Young and energetic Kang Thoun raised a cheer from Cambodian onlookers by finishing second behind Hem Bunting in a time of 1hr 25 min.

Pegged back into third place was Frenchman Yann Defond, who is somewhat of a celebrity in locals circles due to his numerous appearances on TV as a Cambodian-speaking comedian nicknamed Neay Yan.

Harmill wins women's race
The healthy rivalry that has developed between Jill Harmill of Ireland and Cambodia's Ly Nary in the last three years played out again in an exciting fashion.

But the Irish runner, who recovered from a ghastly car-hit while she was training in Phnom Penh two years ago, proved the stronger of the two this time, clocking 1:37:52 and pushing Nary into second place. The winning margin of five minutes was wider than in previous years. Canadian Daniese Lisar finished third.

"I decided to hit the front as soon as I could. Nary is very good; my best chance was to make her do the catch-up," Harmill, who previously played second fiddle to Nary in the Phnom Penh Half Marathon, said.

Incidentally Nary came into this run on the back of a good showing in October's Manila Marathon where she finished second while Harmill had a go at a 50km event in Singapore two months ago in what she regarded as a
satisfying performance.

Shorter races find winners
The supporting event, the 10km run, produced a Cambodian winner in the men's section and a German on the distaff side.

Chum Buntheon and Sman Matly made it a memorable one-two for Cambodia while Jason Judd of the United States came third.

In the women's event, Marjarie Green of Germany was a comfortable winner ahead of Hiromi Kudo of Japan and Nicole Morica of the United States.

The 5km event produced a Spanish double. Alvaro Banderas got home the winner ahead of the Cambodian pair of Touch Silong and Kim Ratana in the men's section. Lara Mora Grege beat Japanese runner Ayano Goto into second place with Canadian Heschuk Sherry taking third, the top three finishing one second of each other.

"We would have been happier with a larger turnout, but we are more than pleased with what we saw this morning. The excitement and the thrilling expectations and never before experience for the runners will all add up to make this a popular sports tourism destination," Vath Chamroeun, National Olympic Committee of Cambodia secretary general and advisor to the Ministry of Tourism, told the Post.

"This is Cambodia's fourth international half marathon. We have a diversity in these four charity runs that is so appealing to overseas runners. I am confident this mountain marathon will attract a lot more visitors next year."

Thansur Bokor Highland Resort general manager Michael Brabsche said it was a privilege to sponsor a sporting event that gives participants a unique feel.

"You can almost touch the cloud, you pass through spectacular landscape, there is forestry in abundance and heritage is all over – an ideal sports tourism destination in Cambodia," he added.

Ngul Lech goes up a gear
Ngul Lech of the Flying Bikes team pedaled his way to glory in the Bokor Cycling Challenge Elite Class competition for men held on Saturday as a thrilling prelude to the half marathon.

Navigating the hilly range with great dexterity Lech, who is among five Cambodian cyclists heading to Myanmar for the SEA Games, set a new record of 1:39:50 for the 45km trip.

Hong Chanmakara of Off-road Bikes finished second. He will compete at the Tour de Bintan International next month.

The men's B category event was won by Ty Ponlok of Offroad Cycling ahead of Simon Gadient and Pen Yusak while the C category was claimed by Silas Everett. Tang Tek Hour finished second and Tony Malino third.

The women's event turned out to be a family affair with sisters Heng Sivlang and Heng Sivgech, both SEA Games hopefuls, taking the top two spots in that order. Third place went to Heng Sivgech's daughter Vong Souhong.

Cambodian boxing legend Treang Sossay passed away at 9:20pm on Saturday night at Calmette Hospital.

He was 69 years old. "He died because of lung and stomach diseases, which he'd suffered from for the past five years.

His son had sent him to hospital many times, but they still couldn't help him," Sossay's wife, Sat Sokhen, told the Post yesterday as she fought back tears.

The body of Sossay, who was a well known and respected referee and the owner of Singha Boxing Club in Phnom Penh, is currently being held at Preah Puth pagoda in 7 Makara district before transportation to his home province of Battambang tomorrow for cremation.

The 2013 National Aquathlon Championship was held on Saturday morning at the National Sports Complex with the swimming leg making use of the Olympic Stadium pool.

The swimming and running race, which was co-hosted by the Cambodian Triathlon Federation and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, followed a similar event held at the Cambodian Country Club on June 1.

According to organisers, 154 male and 35 female athletes participated on Saturday. The men's over-18 division, featuring a 250-mtere swim and a 3,900m run, was won by Rithysen Club's Cheng Chandara in a time of 23min 50.84sec.

The women's race over an identical course saw Heng Sokhong of Friends Association finish first in 35:58.26. The U18 male and female races, which involved a 150m swim and 2,600m run, were won by PSE's Chun Buntheng (15:47.98) and Friends' Yong Raksmey (29:17.62) respectively.

The juggernaut rolls on. The Alaxan FR Patriots swept aside CCPL Heat 72-58 at Beeline Arena on Saturday to end their 11-game round robin phase of the Cambodian Basketball League as the only unbeaten team.

Well before half time, the writing was on the wall for the Heat and at the break it was all about margins with the Patriots leading 40-17.

In the second half, the Patriots rested some of their key players and loosened up on their defence.

"It is nice to finish the round robin unbeaten, but rather putting pressure on our shoulders," Patriots coach Chris Borja told the Post.

"Now it will be win or go home in the play-offs. And there, everything is possible. It seems we will face the Cellcard Eagles in the quarter-finals. This isn't the easiest draw."

In other matches, the all-Cambodian Sela Meas edged out Pate 310 by the barest of margins, winning 63-62 in a game marred by a controversy over an official ruling on the number of fouls involving Pate's top player, Sok Tour.

Sela Meas contended that Sok Tour was on four fouls while the officials maintained that number to be three.

With several players on the injury list and at least two out of the country, the Phnom Penh Dragons could only come up with six players, yet they still managed to defeat the Cellcard Eagles 59-54.

The win helped the Dragons secure fourth place in the standings with seven wins and four defeats.

Scores and statistics
Sela Meas: 63 (Samnang Sok 16 ) beat Pate 62 (Peng Kuy Taing 25, Sok Tour 12)

Phnom Penh Dragons 59 (Ben Laird 24, Matsuki Nishikawa 11, Pounlork Tai 9) beat Cellcard Eagles 54 (Sean Looney 19, Callum McWiloch 10)

Alaxan FR Patriots 72 (Aimar Sabayo 23, Colin Meyn 10, Dexter Arcenas 9) beat CCPL Heat 58 (Panha Sovann 27, Kai Pak 14, Kim Ran 11)

Observers of Malaysia soon realise that the most important elections in the country are not those for parliament, but rather those held every three years for posts in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Helming the National Front government in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO has always been Malaysia's dominant party and the man elected its president automatically becomes prime minister.

That, at least, has been the case for the past half century; but following setbacks in the last two general elections, the UMNO-led coalition's unity and future hold on power now looks less certain.

After the 2008 election, when the Front lost a raft of seats and five states – including powerhouse Selangor – UMNO's then leader, former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, was forced out and replaced by Najib Razak.

As the incoming new PM, Najib vowed to reunify and reinvigorate the coalition, reverse the election setbacks and win back Selangor.

He failed. In last May's polls, the Front dropped more seats, did not recapture Selangor, and while it retained a majority in parliament, it lost the popular vote.

The swords came out for Najib, now aged 60, and many were sure he would face the same fate as his predecessor Abdullah.

The only problem was that UMNO had no obvious credible figure to take over the leadership.

The PM's deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, is a dour campaigner who is six years older than Najib and has a somewhat tarnished reputation. Other senior figures in the party are equally uninspiring.

So Najib was able to survive the immediate post-election blues and rally his forces for the more important challenge: UMNO's party polls on October 19.

Of course, all those partymen who were disillusioned with him also had time to look around for a viable and brave candidate willing to take on the PM.

First up was the old warhorse, Razaleigh Hamzah, who has been in the wilderness since losing the party leadership to former PM Mahathir Mohamad back in 1987.

However, while Razaleigh could have acted as a stalking horse, he was never going to be a credible challenger and so another younger figure stepped forward: Mukhriz Mahathir.

The former veteran PM's youngest son had already shown himself to be a force in the party by rising to become chief minister of Kedah State.

Kedah is Malay heartland territory and folks there never liked Najib's early talk of reaching out to the country's Chinese and Indian minorities, which they viewed as potentially eroding the dominance of the Malays.

But Mukhriz, 48, lacked the stature to challenge the PM directly, so he chose to run for one of the three vice-presidential posts, all of them held by Najib loyalists.

In particular, he targetted Hishammuddin Hussein, the current defence minister, who, until recently, was viewed as Najib's most likely successor.

Like Mukhriz, Hisham is also the son of a former PM, Hussein Onn, as well as being a cousin of Najib.

But his brutish performance, particularly in his earlier post as Home Minister, won him few friends and it was clear that he was vulnerable.

So it proved last week, when the upstart Mukhriz failed by just eight votes to unseat the powerful Hisham.

Had he succeeded, Mukhriz would have been seen as a potential future PM and a figure around whom the party's Malay chauvinists and anti-Najib forces could coalesce.

Unfortunately for Mukhriz, however, it was probably his first and last shot of the dice, for another figure, younger and far more charismatic, waits in the wings to take over the leadership: Khairy Jamaluddin.

Re-elected head of the party's youth wing last week, the stature of Khairy, 37, both among Malays and also Chinese and Indians, is higher than that of most other politicians in the land.

Muhkriz and the right-wing forces around him will likely regroup and take another shot at Najib, but it is now likely that the PM will survive until Khairy is ready to take over.

The Cambodian government has entered into a public-private partnership with a little-known company named ALEX Corporation Co Ltd to develop power lines from plants in Preah Sihanouk province to Phnom Penh, according to the Council of Ministers.

The private firm will invest $119.1 million in a build-operate-transfer agreement to construct and run the infrastructure before handing it over to the government at the end of a 29-year lease.

The 230-kilovolt power transmission lines will connect Preah Sihanouk, Takeo and Kampot provinces up with the capital.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday the project had been given the green light following a feasibility study completed by the China Heavy Machinery Company.

Siphan could not provide any more details on project partner ALEX corporation.

Prak Chan Reuon, director of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy's Preah Sihanouk provincial department, said he did not have details on the project. Welcoming the investment, Reuon said the lines could connect to the Cambodia Energy Limited run coal plant in Preah Sihanouk province.

Neither Electricite du Cambodge nor the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy could be reached for comment.

The volume of cargo shipments going through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS), the biggest deep-water port in Cambodia, saw a 16 per cent year-on-year increase in the first nine months of this year, data released by the port on Friday show.

About 2.27 million tonnes of goods were transported via the port over the period, compared to 1.95 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Of the total shipments, the exports made up 594,424 tonnes, compared to 407,578 tonnes in the first nine months of 2012. The import volume climbed to 1.7 million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Chea Sambath, chief of the PAS planning and marketing department, said yesterday the rise of cargo shipments showed that the country's growth remains stable despite political deadlock.

"Normally an increase of goods traffic at the port is one part of proving that our economy as well as the regional and global economies are improving," he said. "In addition, this rise in imports and exports of goods reflects the growth of our economy despite protests by the opposition party."

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund raised its 2013 growth prediction for Cambodia to seven per cent, up from 6.7 per cent in April. In a recent update, the Asian Development Bank maintained its 7.2 per cent growth prediction for the country.

The port data show that the exports were mostly garments and agricultural products like milled rice, cassava and processed acacia.

Products that Cambodia imported included industrial raw materials and construction raw materials, vehicles and oil.

Lim Bun Heng, president of Loran Import-Export, a leading milled rice exporter, said that the PAS is the main port in Cambodia for long-haul transportation.

"I mostly use the PAS to export milled rice to Europe, the United States or Canada, while Phnom Penh Autonomous Port is used for countries in the region such as Singapore, Malaysia and China."

He said that over the first nine months, he exported more than 26,000 tonnes, of which 55 per cent went to the EU.

More than two weeks since some 850 inmates were evacuated from Banteay Meanchey prison after floodwater caused a wall to collapse, the move is illuminating just how overcrowded their destinations are, an NGO worker has said.

Sharon Critoph, a prison consultant for rights group Licadho, said yesterday that according to recent numbers, more than 1,000 prisoners were being held in Battambang's provincial prison and almost 2,000 in Siem Reap – the two chosen places of refuge for the evacuated prisoners.

According to a 2012 Licadho report, Battambang prison is designed to hold just 650 prisoners and the Siem Riep facility only 1,000.

Lack of space translates into adult and juvenile prisoners sharing space in Battambang, along with varying security levels and stretched resources in both provincial prisons, Critoph said.

"Both these prisons were already operating way over capacity. Now they have reached breaking point. The negative impact on prisoners and their families is already apparent, yet the prisons remain under-resourced and reliant on external donations," she said, adding that up to 20 inmates are crammed into four-by-four-metre cells in both prisons.

Critoph emphasised the need for the post-evacuation situation to be a viewed as a constructive lesson for future overcrowding in the Kingdom's prisons.

"The rights of prisoners should be at the forefront of future emergency planning in the likely event that this situation reoccurs," she said, adding that 51 evacuees temporarily housed in Battambang prison had recently returned to Banteay Meanchey.

Prison officials from all three prisons declined to comment or provide any new numbers on prison capacity quotas.

The prison department pegged the system's official capacity at 8,000 in 2010.

Among the 493 prisoners transferred to Siem Reap, none have been able to attend their individual trial proceedings, Chhem Savuth, the prison's provincial director, said.

"There are no trial proceedings for the [evacuated] prisoners, because of the flooding, so the court has delayed them and we hope they might be able to be sent back by the end of this month," Savuth said.

He added that inmates with communicable diseases had been separated from the rest of the prison population.

Chab Voleak, the program manager for Caritas's prison program charged with providing medical care in prisons in Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, Kratie and Mondulkiri, said that while overcrowding in the Siem Reap prison was problematic, the living situation for Banteay Meanchey evacuees could be significantly worse.

Banteay Meanchey inmates held at Siem Reap prison are living "much better lives than if they were living in floodwater", Voleak said yesterday.

Hin Saphal, director of Banteay Meanchey Provincial Prison, could not be reached

Hy Chamroeun, Battambang's deputy provincial prison director, declined to comment.

A 16-year-old faced Banteay Meanchey provincial court yesterday on charges related to allegedly shooting a 42-year-old man from Mongkol Borei district's Rahat Teuk commune then raping his 13-year-old daughter.

The teen male was arrested on Saturday for allegedly shooting Net Sol in the head with a rifle on Wednesday evening while the victim was guarding farmland owned by the suspect's father in Malay district, three kilometres from O'Ampil village, where the suspect lived.

Khouth Chan Hang, a Malay district police official, said yesterday that two rifles were seized during the arrest.

"The suspect was sent to the police station after his arrest at about 10am," Chang Hang said, adding that it was a "cruel crime and rape".

The two had no previous issues with each other, according to Sao Bun, a Malay district police chief, who told the Post that after killing Sol, the suspect allegedly travelled to his home in Rohat Teuk commune and raped his daughter.

"After the suspect's arrest, he was taken to the police station and the police had the girl identify the suspect," Bun said yesterday.

Provincial court officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Amid concerns of legal violations on the part of their employer, about 400 workers at the USA Fully Field garment factory in the capital's Meanchey district accepted payouts for their factory closing – even though it hasn't.

Workers protested last week in fear that the factory was shutting its doors, leaving them left without seniority benefits accrued from as far back as the 1990s.

But a factory representative, who declined to be named, said yesterday that the factory would stay open under the same name and owner, but would mark a new beginning on Friday with new contracts.

"The company is not going to close, but we just appointed a new general manager and have made new contracts," he said. "Workers who want to stay here have signed a new contract and will come here on [Friday]."

Soy Nakri, a worker representative, said that meant long-term workers had accepted $650 to end their previous contracts.

"There are 22 workers who have worked for longer than 10 years who did not accept," Nakri said, adding they were entitled to more compensation.

Dave Welsh, from labour rights group Solidarity Center/ACILS, said it was "totally illegal" under the Labor Law for a company that has changed managers to clear the contract history of its workers. "The workers can't negotiate below the minimum standards of the Labor Law. In this case, frankly, they probably don't know the law.

"Responsibility [to help them] lies with organisations like us, the ILO and unions," he said, adding he would meet with workers today.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHANE WORRELL