E-Paper
Thailand focuses on ancient niche sport
A uniquely Asian niche sport dating back centuries is Thailand's biggest hope for gold medals at the Asian Games starting in South Korea this weekend.
A uniquely Asian niche sport dating back centuries is Thailand's biggest hope for gold medals at the Asian Games starting in South Korea this weekend.
Thailand hopes to win 13 gold medals at the games in Pusan, with four of those coming from sepak takraw, a game involving teams of players keeping a small wicker ball off the ground.
Thailand won five of the six sepak takraw golds at the last Asian Games it hosted in Bangkok four years ago.
"We are very confident we will win golds from takraw, although pressure will be enormous when we play host South Korea, Malaysia or Myanmar," Santiprab Tejavanija, head of the Sports Authority of Thailand, told Reuters.
Various versions of sepak takraw, which is played over a net by two teams of three or in circles by teams of five, have been recorded in Southeast Asia from as early as the 11th Century.
According to http://www.takrawworld.com, a Thai Web site on the game, Marco Polo brought back to Europe from China a similar game which involved kicking an object in the air and counting the number of kicks.
The modern game has two forms: "regu", which is played over a net, and circle sepak takraw. Regu involves three players per team in a volleyball style game. In the circle event players put the ball through a hoop high above their heads.
Players can hit the coconut-sized ball with any part of their body except their hands. Athletes say the game combines the teamwork of volleyball, the dexterity and acrobatics of soccer and the fitness of badminton.
The sport is widely played in Southeast Asia and tournaments among the 10 countries in the region usually come down to fast-paced duels between Thailand and Malaysia.
Santiprab said he hoped Thailand would defend successfully four of its five takraw titles in Pusan, South Korea.
The Asian Games start on Sunday and the sepak takraw tournament gets under way on Monday and runs through October 9.
At the 1998 Games, relative newcomer Myanmar won the gold for womens regu.
Apart from Thailand, other nine countries will compete in takraw at the 14th Asian Games, including China, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Japan.
The Thai men and women's regu teams won the first Sepak Takraw World Cup joined by 10 nations in August at Singapore.
