Junji Kurokawa / AP file

Thailand's Sittichai Suwonprateep, right, runs to the finish line to barely beat Japan's Shinji Takihara to win the gold medal in men's 4x100m relay at the Asian Games on Tuesday. While awating the results of a photo finish, Suwonprateep vowed to run a lap naked during training if his team was declared champion.

updated 11:21 a.m. ET Dec. 15, 2006

BANGKOK - A Thai Asian Games gold medalist will run around his training track naked after his prayers were answered as he awaited the result of a photo finish.

Sittichai Suwonprateep, who ran the last leg of the men’s 400-meter relay final Tuesday, said he prayed while waiting anxiously for a decision which ruled he had got to the finish line just ahead of Japan’s Shinji Takahira.

“I didn’t know what to do while waiting for the photo result, so I just told all the spirits and sacred objects I worship that if I won I would run naked,” Sittichai said.

“I am not sure if this gold medal was the result of my ability or the power of the spirits I prayed to,” said the 26-year-old naval officer, who won a gold in the same relay in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan.

Making promises to amulets, images or spirits is a common practice among Thais in largely Buddhist Southeast Asian nation.

But Sittichai declined to say when he would actually run naked.

“I won’t tell anyone when I will run. I am embarrassed about what I will be doing.”

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