Word: soun
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...traveling variety show, to while away the time between laps. The first day's lap was uneventful. On the second day, as the race wound on through Communist-infested territory to Baclieu, Vietnamese troops stood at the ready every 100 yards along the route. Cambodian Champion Soun (he has no other name) and a Saigon policeman named Ngo Than Liem were racing well ahead of the field as they passed the town of Cantho...
Suddenly both were thrown from their bikes by an explosion in the ditch alongside the road. At the same moment, a Tommy gun chattered from a nearby hut. As the Vietnamese soldiers returned the fire, most of the cyclists, including Champ Soun, dived for the ditches, but Policeman Liem jumped back on his bike and pedaled hell-for-leather toward the finish. The only man to finish the lap, and thus win a prize of 15,000 piasters ($428), he got down from his bike and fainted dead away. "I'm no hero," he told the cheering Vietnamese fans...