Muaythai, one of the most popular sports in the Asian Beach Games, had to start their 2 days before the opening giving it a total 6 days of competition.
Situated on the beautiful main beach in Da Nang, the venue was packed with many Asian National Olympic Committees coming to support muaythai team. Fantastic matches took place with an excited and loud crowd, especially as team Vietnam would enter the arena.
In the 54kg division, Philippines beat Turkmenistan, Korea beat China and Thailand beat Iraq. In 60kg division Uzbekistan beat Tajikistan and Thailand winning by a split decision against Kyrgyzstan, making it one of the matches of the day. Hong Kong lost against Thailand in the Men’s 51kg, but won the 48kg women’s division over India. Kyrgyzstan won against Uzbekistan, Iran beat the Philippines and Vietnam, to the delight of their home crowd beat Jordan and China got the better of Malaysia. In the 60kg men, Iran beat Kazakhstan, Thailand beat Korea and Iraq silenced the crowd by beating the home favourite of Vietnam, making this another outstanding performance of the day. The athlete of the host country of the 2017 Indoor Asian and Martial Arts Games, Turkmenistan, beat Lebanon. And Singapore beat the Philippines in the 48 KG female division showcasing that size does not matter.
This was a fantastic first day, showcasing why muaythai or muay, as the South East Asians would call it, totally deserved its place in the Asian Beach Games 2016.