Tourism and Sports Minister Suwit Yodmanee presided over the event, which was conducted

by the Sport Authority of Thailand (SAT) at the Indoor Stadium Hua Mark, with prominent figures from each of the sports associations among the audience.

The writing was already on the wall when Danai, who has lived in the shadow of Thai No 1 Paradorn Srichaphan, pulled off a highly unexpected result by defeating the current top-ranked player in Asia, Lee Hyung-taik, to claim an unlikely 13th gold medal for the Kingdom.

"This decoration was a reward for all my hard work. It will encourage me to carry on with my tennis both for the country and my career," said Danai.

"In professional tennis, we play week in, week out every year and that gives you a chance to make up for any mistakes. But at the amateur level, if you miss the chances in the SEA Games or Asian Games, it will take you longer to get another opportunity to make amends.

"For the next Olympics, I will try to push my ranking up to be eligible for the Games and claim another chance to impress my nation," added Danai who had previously received the Best Men's Junior Amateur Athlete Award.

There also was no surprise in the women's category as famous weightlifter Pawina who helped Thailand end their 40-year gold-medal drought in the Asian Games by sealing clean-and-jerk victory in the 63kg division with another record-shattering performance received the award for the third consecutive time.

"I'm very thankful to the committee who picked me for this award. The praise and the rewards for the hard work in training is overwhelming. This will motivate me to get even better in the future, especially at the Olympics," said Pawina, who has a peerless record of holding a world record in three different classes - 63kg, 69kg and 75kg.

Veteran golfer Boonchu Ruangkit, however, caused an upset yesterday by beating World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight champion Pongsaklek Krating-daeng Gym, who recently was inducted into the WBC Hall of Fame after successfully defended his title for the 15th successive time, for the Best Professional Athlete Award.

"I'm very happy. I didn't think that given my age the committee would take me into consideration for the award. I would like to thank the SAT for giving importance to the sport. This will inspire all the young golfers to take the game quite seriously," said the 50-year-old Boonchu.