Singapore attempts chinlone at SEA Games, goes down fighting to Malaysia

REPORTING FROM MYANMAR

There is no Singapore national team. In fact, there may not be any chinlone players in Singapore to begin with.

But that didn't stop the republic from gamely sending its sepak takraw team to take part in the traditional Burmese sport at the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar on Wednesday.

The six-man team from Singapore was promptly kicked out in the preliminary rounds by neighbours Malaysia, losing all three sets 50-79, 55-85 and 51-82 in an overall 156-246 beating.

A valiant effort and not bad at all for their first time ever competing, according to captain Muhammad Magrib.

'Some of us only tried it three hours before the game,' said the striker. 'The Myanmar people didn't expect us to score above 100 points even.'

Granted, chinlone - which is making its SEA Games debut - bears similarities to sepak takraw, with both employing the lower limbs to move the same rattan ball.

But the thousand-year-old sport does not involve a net nor direct competition with another team: its objective is for players in a circle to take turns keeping the ball airborne while performing tricks at the same time.

'It's such a happy game,' said Singapore sepak takraw coach Salleh Nanang. 'When Myanmar asked, the players really wanted to try their hand at it.'

The team still has two more chinlone events to play over the next two days, before their sepak takraw contest begins proper on 10 December.

And Magrib, clearly passionate about anything involving the keepie-uppie , told Yahoo Singapore he hopes that Singapore's willingness to participate in such an obscure sport will promote its inclusion at future SEA Games, including the 2015 edition to be held in the Lion City.

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