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VIENTIANE - Singapore's first appearance in a major competitive wrestling match ended in disappointment here on Wednesday.
Melvynna Tambunan's hopes of clinching a medal at the SEA Games ended after a 6-0 loss to Cambodia's Channreaksmey Chey in the play-off for bronze in the women's 51kg freestyle at the Booyong Gymnasium.
Tambunan, 28, was inconsolable after the match.
While still down, she was more composed when the Singapore media caught up with her at the Games Village later.
"I think the girl was stronger than me," said the teary-eyed Singaporean, who lamented the fact she was not even more aggressive in her bout.
"My plan was to take her down and take my points, but I didn't expect her to slap me on the head and punch me in the face! I wasn't used to that and it did put me off."
The Singaporean's plan had been to start aggressively and secure the points early on, but Channreaksmey, the Cambodian national champion, caught her out with two double points in quick succession to take the opening set 4-0.
Tambunan put up a stiffer contest in the final set, but Channreaksmey nabbed a further two points, including one from a take-down, to seal the bronze medal.
"She wasn't able to get the double-leg attacking, while her opponent could. This girl was pushing her away every time," said Wrestling Federation of Singapore (WFS) vice-president and team manager, Jimmy Taenaka.
"We tried everything, from setting her up for a double, single leg, arm-drag, even a throw, everything that we went through in training, but she had a better leg attack."
Added Singapore head coach Sergei Beloglazov: "She (Tambunan) still needs to continue adapting her judo techniques into wrestling because today she gave away points."
Tambunan, fifth at the 2009 Asian Senior Wrestling Championships, agreed.
"I need more sparring partners because I didn't have other women to work with," she said.
"It's always guys. It's good, but they go light on me. And I need to get stronger for my weight category."
Today, Singapore will seek to wrestle their first medal as Aloysius Chua, Mohamad Sulaiman and Gabriel Yang compete in the men's 66kg, 74kg and 84kg freestyle, respectively.
Despite the disappointment, Taenaka hopes participating in the SEA Games will help raise the profile of the sport, starting with the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
"They're still learning, transferring talent from judo," he said.
"It takes time. Every experience helps. From this tournament, the vision is a lot clearer of where we stand." - TODAY
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