South Korean teqball team aims for medals at Asian Games debut

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- With teqball set to make its Asian Games debut in Japan this month, South Korean athletes will try to bring home multiple medals in what is still largely an unfamiliar sport here.

The official website of Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games introduces teqball as "a visually spectacular and dynamic sport that combines elements of football, table tennis and freestyle skills." It is played on a curved table, with players allowed to hit the ball with any part of their body except the hands and arms.

A player must return the ball with a maximum of three touches. In doubles matches, teammates must pass the ball at least once to each other. Also, players are not allowed to touch the ball with the same body part twice in a row.

First played in Hungary in 2014, teqball is one of the world's fastest-growing sports. The International Teqball Federation, established in 2017, has more than 150 member federations.

The sport has attracted athletes with backgrounds in football and sepaktakraw, a Southeast Asian sport that features elements of volleyball and football. South Korea began competing internationally in teqball in 2019.

At the Asian Games, gold medals will be up for grabs in the men's and women's singles and doubles, and the mixed doubles. A country may only participate in up to three events.

South Korean teqball players will be: Lee Jun-suk, Lee Tae-been, Kim Eun-jun and Jang Eun-seo.

Lee Jun-suk, the team's captain, will compete in the men's singles and will partner with Lee Tae-been in the men's doubles. Kim and Jang will compete in the mixed doubles.

South Korea's goal is to reach the podium in every event, with Lee Jun-suk considered a particularly strong medal threat in the men's singles.

Both Lee Jun-suk and Kim grew up playing football, with the former having been on a fourth-division club. Jang is a sepaktakraw player.

Their head coach, Lee Yong-seop, worked as a football coach for about two decades before joining the Korea Teqball Association as its secretary-general and eventually taking over the national team.

According to Lee, his athletes quit their day jobs to focus on preparing for the Asian Games, once teqball was added to the competition in February. Lee Jun-suk had been with LG Electronics Inc. as a contract worker and would have been in line for promotion to permanent status when he chose teqball. Lee Tae-been put his career as a jewelry designer on hold for the Asian Games. Kim had been working with a pharmaceutical company and playing on its foot volleyball team.

"These athletes are all very desperate," coach Lee said. "They are really motivated to do well at the Asian Games not for their individual glory but to promote teqball and inspire others to pick up the sport."

South Korea reached the quarterfinals in the men's doubles and the round of 16 in the mixed doubles at the Teqball Tour Dezhou event in June in Dezhou, China. Then in August, both the men's doubles and the mixed doubles teams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Beach Teqball International Cup in Rushan, China.

Coach Lee said his athletes have often asked him what they are supposed to do after the Asian Games, with all but Jang, who is still a college student, unemployed.

"I have to remind them that we represent the first generation of the sport for Korea and we are writing new history," the coach said. "I believe there will be a path for them to coach the sport and at least to stay involved in the sport, regardless of how they do at the Asian Games. And we are paving the way together."

The Asian Games opening ceremony is Sept. 19, but teqball starts Sept. 17 with preliminaries. All five finals will take place Sept. 20 at Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center in Nagoya.