Hem Bunting

Who is Hem Bunting?

Hem Bunting is a Cambodian marathoner.

Bunting is one of nine children from a family of farmers in Stung Treng Province. The British Broadcasting Corporation has described him as "so poor he lives in the crumbling athletics stadium where he trains". He won a silver medal in the marathon and a bronze at the 5,000 metre race at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games. He represented Cambodia in the marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, finishing 73rd in a time of 2:33:32.

Bunting had few facilities and little funding to prepare for the Olympics. He trained by running laps on a track simultaneously used by casual joggers, and could not afford to buy running shoes. The BBC's article on him moved one reader to send him new training shoes prior to the Beijing Olympics.

He has made a significant effort in his second Marathon outing of 2012 after finishing in top 50 at the Paris Marathon on April 15 with a personal best of 2:23:29. The time also improved on his previous national record 2:25:20 set during 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane where he won a bronze medal. Not only that, his official intermediate time at half marathon shows 1:09:04, which is a new national record.