Indian men's team wins silver medal at Asian Sepak Takraw Championship 2017

The Indian men's national sepak takraw team recorded a fine showing at the Double Team event of the Asian Sepak Takraw Championship 2017 in Indonesia, reaching the finals and winning the silver medal on Saturday. The event has been organized as a test event for the upcoming Asian Games and the same venue will host the sepak takraw events in 2018.

Yogender Singh Dahiya, the General Secretary of the Sepak Takraw Federation of India, spoke exclusively to Sportskeeda after the result and expressed his delight at the team's performance.

The team has been training in Thailand for the event, which has been an important factor in its most recent success. Dahiya said, "I would like to thank the Government for their continuous support."

"The training has been going on at the Sepak Takraw Academy in Thailand and it has helped the team a lot in improving their game and performing better," he added.

India defeated the likes of Iran, Japan and Singapore on their way to the final, where they faced off against hosts Indonesia in the final but lost out in a closely contested match.

The scoreline read 22-20 21-19 in the first regu, while the second ended 21-18 21-17.

Now, the Indian side will now travel to Bangkok to take part in the prestigious Kings Cup, which will take place from December 11-17. In January next year, they will travel to Iran for another competition.

"Our chances are very bright in the coming months the way things have been going for so far," said Dahiya. "However," he added, "our only worry is that there should be no major injury concerns in the build-up to the main tournaments, especially since the nature of the sport is such where players get injured frequently."