MYANMAR returned from the 12th Asian Rowing Championships in South Korea with their best result in the sport in almost two decades – a bronze medal in the men’s lightweight coxless four event.

“This is the highest achievement we’ve had in the 17 years the Myanmar Rowing and Canoeing Federation has been established,” federation secretary general U Pe Win said after the eight-member team returned from the October 16-19 championships in Chung-Ju.

Myanmar finished third in the final of the coxless four behind China and Japan, and ahead of South Korea, the Philippines and Kazakhstan.

“China, Japan and Korea are very good teams, but China is the best and won nearly every event,” said Myanmar rowing coach Kyaw Win, who travelled with the team.

“At first, we hoped to finish fourth, expecting (South) Korea would be third. But we tried our best and got third place.

“We were only two seconds faster than the fourth-place team. If we had to row another 10 or 20 metres, we would have been fourth,” he said.

Myanmar participated in seven out of the eight men’s events held at the Asian championships, finishing 5th in the heavyweight coxless four, 6th in the lightweight pairs, 7th in the heavyweight double sculls, 8th in the lightweight double sculls, 9th in the heavyweight single sculls and 10th in the lightweight single sculls.

Kyaw Win said medallists Khin Maung Yi, Kyaw Myo Khaing, Than Aung and Shwe Hla Win had proved a strong combination and teams would not be changed during training for the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

SEA Games defending champions Indonesia would be the team to beat at the region’s showpiece sports event this December, Kyaw Win said.

“Their record is 3-4 seconds faster than us, so we’re going to have to work hard to beat them. They didn’t send a men’s team to Asian Rowing Championships,” he added.

Myanmar had not participated in the Asian championships since 1995.