Thailand Want Four Sepak Takraw Golds and Three More From Teqball, a Sport Making Its Asian Games Debut

Teqball was invented in Hungary in 2014 and is played on a curved table with a net across the middle, using a football. Players may strike the ball with any part of the body except the hands and arms, and each side is allowed a maximum of three touches. The sport will appear at the Asian Games for the first time in Aichi-Nagoya, with five medal events.

The National Olympic Committee of Thailand has announced that it will send 694 athletes, 356 men and 338 women, to compete in 42 sports at the Games, which run in Japan from 19 September to 4 October.

The committee's target is 14 gold medals. Four are expected from sepak takraw and three from teqball, with one each sought in kurash, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, golf, athletics, sailing and esports. The squad also includes 24 kabaddi players and six wushu athletes, although no gold target was set for either sport.

Thai sepak takraw players are also helping a rival prepare. Six male players from the Thai navy team and six female players from the Honda team were invited to South Korea's Jincheon National Training Center for joint training with the Korean national men's and women's teams from 7 to 12 September. South Korea's squad is due to leave for Japan on 17 September.

Sepak takraw, the net game played with the feet and head, will be staged at the Paloma Mizuho Arena in Nagoya from 20 September to 3 October across six events: men's regu, men's quadrant, men's team regu, women's doubles, women's quadrant and women's team regu. The first finals, in the men's and women's team regu, are scheduled for 25 September.