SUWON - The 31-year-old Sruong Pheavy from Cambodia has reached the status of a world star in billiard-crazy Asia within a few years. She is the world's number 2 in women's three cushion following Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands, but in popularity in South Korea with its hundreds of thousands of billiard players and fans, Pheavy is ranked among the absolute top athletes. The Cambodian owes this status to her growing charisma and fame on social media like Facebook and Instagram. The billiard player, now living in Suwon (South Korea), is very famous as well for her campaigns to fight against child poverty in her native country. ''It doesn't tire me, it gives me strength,'' says Pheavy.
The Cambodian lady twice finished third on the podium in the last three cushion World Championships following Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands and Orie Hida from Japan. She is the runner-up on the world ranking: the nr. 1 is Therese Klompenhouwer, 3 is Orie Hida, 4 Ayaka Sakai from Japan, 5 Estela Cardoso from Spain, 6 Gülsen Degener from Turkey. Pheavy grew up as a young girl in Kampong Cham at her parents' potato farm. She has two sisters, Sroung Srey Nich and Srong Phara, who are younger than her and still live there. Pheavy left Cambodia, where there was a threat of war for years and Pol Pot and his Red Khmer were in a reign of terror, when she met her 28-year older, later husband, Kim Man-sik. That was, Pheavy says now, the turning point in her early life. The Cambodian was taken to South Korea, saw a wonderful billiard room for the first time and was devoted to the sport, in which she is now one of the best in the world.
The ambition, with a new Korean coach shortly, is to win even more matches and eventually be able to fight Therese Klompenhouwer as world champion. Sruong Pheavy has many other goals. She regularly travels to Cambodia to stand up for her own federation and to make billiards more known in her country. She wants to win gold for Cambodia at the Asian games and in the meantime grow further in the world of global UMB billiards.
Behind her ambition is the passion, which was sown in 2011 after the departure with her husband to Korea, where she was introduced to a billiard salon in Cheongju. ''That was all I needed,'' Pheavy recently told the Korean Times, one of the oldest English-language Korean newspapers and this week also to Kozoom. Pheavy (31): ''Of all the good things that happened to me, the best was that I met my husband. I lived with my parents and three sisters at the potato farm. There I had my work, but we were poor. I really wanted to start a doctor study at school, but we couldn't afford the study.''
The development as a billiard player and the fame she has gained in recent years with campaigns for charities, which has made a big impression in Asia. Choi Hyun-hee, managing director of the Korean cue brand Billking Korea, which is Pheavy's sponsor, calls her a 'multicultural figurehead' and sees Pheavy as the ideal promoter to further increase the number of carom athletes in Southeast Asian countries. ''Children want to follow in her footsteps and hopefully become high class players like Pheavy,'' said Choi, who has managed the Cambodian's public relations since 2015.
Pheavy wants to develop further and show how the plans can be realized. She has already garnered significant popularity in Korea and Cambodia to develop the sport. In June 2019, in South Korea, the 'Ministry of Gender Equality and Family' appointed her, along with eighteen others, as a multicultural family ambassador to encourage exchanges between migrants of different nationalities. During the South Korea 'ASEAN Top' late last year, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism filmed an interview with Pheavy promoting coffee from Asian countries at a big square in Seoul. And last month, the tv channel MBN named her one of the seven best female athletes of the year. With her YouTube channel, called Pheavy Q, launched late last year and already reaching millions, Pheavy's life has changed even more drastically.
Her popularity in Cambodia has continued to grow thanks to her public relations activities. Pheavy owes this to her active role on facebook. ''I post updates about myself and show people in Cambodia what I'm doing here in Korea. But I also try to promote campaigns for the development of school children and to combat the poverty of children in Cambodia. That's why I regularly travel to my country.'' The son of Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, saved Pheavy's billiards career a few years ago by donating $ 8,900 to set up the Cambodian billiards and snooker federation.
The exchanges with fans in her country are increasing time and again. While visiting the capital, Phnom Penh, she met important government and business people. Pheavy helps poor regions visiting street markets and other gatherings with her Facebook posts thanks to money from fundraising campaigns in Korea for school children. And Pheavy recently sent hand sanitizers to Cambodia to help prevent COVID-19. ''I want to show my gratitude to Cambodia. These efforts don't tire me, they give me strength.'' She received the most recent award in recognition of her contribution to various family groups and broadening the family culture by giving free billiards lessons for multicultural children, fundraising and after-school carom classes.
The focus remains on her national and international performances as a women's billiard phenomenon, however, unfortunately, all international tournaments are stopped due to COVID-19 and even the World Championship in Turkey in January 2021 is threatened to be cancelled. ''I try to practice a lot and intensively, as much as possible from one in the afternoon to eleven in the evening in my own billiard room in Cheongju, which is named after me. I want to be able to beat Therese Klompenhouwer and other top players in the world someday. That would be great for my country Cambodia, for my family, my friends and sponsors.''
Pheavy in her billiard room
Pheavy in a pose for sponsor BillKing
Pheavy with friends in her billiard club
Pheavy in a Cambodjan school with young children
Sruong Pheavy with the world champion Therese Klompenhouwer
Pheavy with her three sisters
Pheavy as a young girl at the farm of her parents in Cambodja