Quick summary:
The upcoming Asian Games boasts 439 events and 36 different sports, including many non-western sports that seem to defy categorisation, and continually wow new audiences.
The intriguing sports of Kabaddi and Sepaktakraw are probably unfamiliar to most westerners. One is based on holding your breath and chanting while tackling opposition, while the other uses amazing martial-art style soccer moves to send a ball over a net.
The sports are dominated by India and Thailand respectively, and while neither sport is widely known internationally, they both enjoy considerable support regionally.
Article extract:
The non-Olympic sports on display in South Korea include not only cricket and the popular martial art of karate, but also two sports that have yet to make any appreciable dent in the Western consciousness: kabaddi and sepaktakraw.
Kabaddi, a team contact sport developed in and dominated by India, was played this year in a new professional league in India that attracted big audiences. Sepaktakraw, a Southeast Asian game dominated by Thailand that combines volleyball and soccer, started a Grand Prix format in 2011, the ISTAF SuperSeries, in an attempt to reach new markets. But for now the sport remains a spectacular regional diversion.
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