Korean women reach team regu final in sepaktakraw at Asian Games

NAGOYA, Japan — The Korean women’s sepaktakraw team on Thursday beat Indonesia 2-0 in the team regu semifinal at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 in Nagoya, Japan, to reach the final for the third straight time. 

The victory at Nagoya City Mizuho Park means the team will come home with at least a silver medal, which it has won at the two previous Asian Games. 

Korea will vie for a gold medal on Friday against a favorite Thailand, which beat host country Japan 2-0 in the other semifinal.

Thailand will go into the final on the back of four gold medals from the past four Asian Games. If Thailand wins the final, it would mark the Southeast Asian country's third successive win against Korea in the Asiad final. 

Thailand earlier secured a 3-0 win over Korea in the preliminary match on Wednesday.

Korea’s only Asian Games gold medal in sepaktakraw came at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. The men’s circle event, in which players stand in a circle and perform various skills with the ball before adding up their scores, remains the country's only gold medal in any sepaktakraw event across both men or women's contests.

Team regu, meanwhile, is a team event in which each side fields three regus, or groups of three players. The regus play one after another, and the team that wins two of the three regu matches wins the overall match.

BY KIM HYO-KYONG [[email protected]]