Kandal: The 2021 National Tug of War Championships at the Teacher Training College of Kandal province started with a series of qualifiers on Sunday. It has the participation of associations from the capital and provinces competing for the championship in two disciplines divided in men and women categories.

The national tug-of-war championship is supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to continue the goal of developing the tug-of-war in Cambodia to grow even further.

The chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the Cambodian Tug of War Federation, Soran Det, has confirmed this year’s competition includes nine men associations with 46 players and 7 women’s teams with 45 players. It will also include 20 delegates-coaches training their athletes for two different competitions: in the men's 4-4 groups with 300kg category and the women's 4-4 groups with 250kg category.

Secretary General of the Cambodian Tug of War Federation, Prak Samphors stated the main purpose of organizing the 2021 National. Championship is to select the best players from clubs across the country to include in the national team and continue strengthening the training capacity at the national federation to participate in various competition.

Prak Samphors has specifically declared the major goal it’s to train all players for the 32nd SEA Games 2023, which will be the first time in the history of Cambodia that the Kingdom will host such international competition.

At the second of December Cambodia celebrated the sixth anniversary of the induction of traditional Cambodian Tug-of-War to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. According to Prak Samphors, tug-of-war is linked to Khmer tradition and culture with evidences seen in carvings on the walls of many temples around the Kingdom.