They came by train, bus and car, but Thai fans are bonding over a shared love of MotoGP champ Marc Marquez, as the first-ever race is held here to an enthusiasm that organizers hope will catch fire across Southeast Asia.
Sporting a hat with Marquez’s No. 93, Pornrathee Pinchanpalee late on Friday waited outside the exit of the Chang International Circuit to catch a glimpse of her favorite rider, even though she took a photograph with him earlier.
She was in a group of several other Marquez-mad Thai fans waiting for the 25-year-old star after the first practice sessions ahead of today’s race.
“We came separately. I’m alone, but we met here,” said the 38-year-old, who lives about an hour and half away from Buriram, a rural town of 30,000 hosting Thailand’s maiden MotoGP.
“We are in a fan club of Marc’s. Marc is so nice, he is so kind. He always has positive thinking. I love it,” she said. “I mean he’s the champion and he’s handsome also.”
The group came from different backgrounds, but the fever for Marquez was the same.
“Give us seven,” chanted a friend of Pornrathee, putting up a hand sign with the number of premier titles Marquez has won across divisions.
Tickets to the Marquez stand, which cost about US$75, were slightly more expensive than normal prices, but Pornrathee said she secured hers earlier this year.
“So when I knew MotoGP was coming here I was so excited,” she said.
Marquez enjoys a comfortable 72-point lead over the second-place rider going into Buriram and a strong performance would push him closer to his fifth MotoGP title.
His local supporters think he will triumph following his victory in Spain last month.
“He will absolutely win as he is quite confident,” Aekkachai Chewong, 26, a Thai motorbike enthusiast.
Marquez also lit up social media in a pre-race event in Bangkok on Wednesday, when he rode around old town in a tuk-tuk.
“It’s the most special thing. I’m close to a world-class racer,” one man wrote on Twitter alongside a selfie of him with Marquez in the background.
The reception and energy are a blessing for the riders of MotoGP, which sees Southeast Asia as a growth region. Malaysia is to host a race later this year and there is a huge fan base in Indonesia.
Promoters expect more than 100,000 people to descend on Buriram over the weekend.
Nestled in a part of the country where rice paddies and water buffaloes are a common vista, the town has pumped money into sports to boost the economy.
Stands started to fill up yesterday in anticipation of the afternoon’s qualifying sessions.
“It’s good that we come here more times,” seven-time champion Valentino Rossi, who also has a local following, told reporters. “The passion for MotoGP is very high.”
That is certainly true in Thailand.
Pornrathee has met other Thais who descended on Buriram from across the country.
“Everywhere,” she said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier