To purists, it is a non-competitive pastime in which beauty outweighs victory, but to others, Myanmar’s enigmatic ball game chinlone is a source of pride that has already brought the host nation a clutch of gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games.
A mesmerizing form of keepy-uppy with a cane ball among six players, the sport is one of a welter of disciplines unknown to the wider world, but popular within the region.
The roster at this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar is peppered with obscure non-Olympic sports, such as martial arts vovinam, wushu and pencak silat — an Indonesian fighting skill — as well as another more widely played cane ball game, sepak takraw.
Photo: AFP
The regional sporting extravaganza has returned to the country after a 44-year absence, marking another landmark in Myanmar’s opening up after decades cloistered by paranoid generals.
Desperate to showcase chinlone, Myanmar lobbied hard for its inclusion in the Games as a “culturally specific” sport, sparking allegations from outraged rivals that the hosts were cherry-picking events for its athletes.
While it is not alone in its use of feet to juggle a ball, chinlone’s uniqueness is revealed in its high kicks, balletic overhead touches and precise exchanges between players, who gracefully swap positions or rotate around a circle. It holds a hallowed place in Myanmar as a recreation casually played on roadsides everywhere, but also for its almost meditational quality, which is revealed through the concentration required to repeat the moves over long periods.
The game is so idiosyncratic that formal rules had to be crafted for the games in Naypyidaw, such as the introduction of an opposition, scoring system and defined playing area.
However, its inclusion posed a sizeable challenge to the other six nations who signed up for the discipline.
“They had to learn it from scratch,” said Boonchai Lorhpipat, deputy president of the international sepak takraw federation — under whose banner the sport has fallen, as it also uses a cane ball.
“Some of the basic skills are the same as sepak takraw, but the game is very different,” he said. Officials had to make the game “umpire-able,” he added, with rules including restricting the game inside two concentric circles, introducing scores across three sets and holding a parallel game to act as the opposition.
Fans have gloried in the staging of the game, filling a purpose-built indoor arena to cheer Myanmar’s men’s and women’s chinlone teams.
There are now calls for it to be included on a more regular basis in the Southeast Asian Games, which are held every two years.
Somewhat predictably, Myanmar hoovered up six golds, helping fire the country to an early lead in the medals table in a competition that inspires fierce regional rivalry, but goes all but undetected in the wider sporting world.
“As a Myanmar woman, I’m delighted to win this medal... I don’t have words to describe my happiness,” a jubilant Khine Win Thu said after claiming gold in a women’s event on Monday.
The team cruised past Thailand, with the ball hitting the floor only a handful times in the 30 minutes of play.
To chinlone masters, the sport is a metaphor of sorts for their country, which has undergone sweeping political and economic reforms since 2011.
“It’s a complex, delicate and difficult game,” Myanmar head chinlone coach Khin Muang Win said.
“People do not know about this tradition... [but] I believe the world will get to know Myanmar better through chinlone,” he added.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS