From Cambodia to Delhi, via Australia for Vannara Be [-We are proud of you also, Vannara!]

Weightlifter Vannara Be impresses Indian ladies at the athletes village. Picture: Alex Coppel Source: News Limited

October 01, 2010
Mike Colman in Delhi
The Australian

HIS uncle was a boat person, a refugee from Pol Pot's reign of terror. His father was an immigrant who bent his back dawn to dusk picking grapes to provide his family with a future. Now Commonwealth Games weightlifter Vannara Be has become the first Cambodian-born athlete to represent Australia.

So how does he feel?

"Surprised actually," he said after being presented to the media. "I didn't know until someone just told me."

But if Victoria-based Be was vague about his standing in Australian sporting history, he has total clarity about his own family history and the terrible affect the Pol Pot regime had upon it.
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