Mong gets third place in new event

       Mong Thongdee, the stateless boy representing Thailand at the Japanese paper airplane contest, has captured third place in the individual event.
       It was the second achievement in two days for the boy. On Saturday, Mong,12, and his three-member Thai team won the group competition.
       Contestants quickly fold their planes,then throw them into the air.
       Mong won a national paper airplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba,near Tokyo.
       But Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai,is the son of Burmese migrants who are stateless and so have no legal right to travel abroad.
       His first application to leave Thailand was denied, but after media coverage of his plight the government granted him a temporary passport.
       Mong yesterday appeared in a white T-shirt decorated with the Thai flag, whipping his carefully folded airplanes high into the air during the competition in front of hundreds of spectators.
       He placed third in the division for elementary school students with a time of 10.53 seconds.
       After the event he said he wanted his family back home to know he won third place, and that he was grateful to the people who supported him.