The 2022 Men's Canadian Sepak Takraw Championship was a huge success! Eight teams with players from BC, AB, and SK competed for the national title. Here is our Media Release that highlighted the tournament results.
Gold to Medicine Hat, Silver to Regina and Bronze to Calgary A | Sunday, July 31, 2022
Regina SK, Canada: The stage seating was full of spectators who came to enjoy watching the high level of skilled Sepak Takraw matches as the top 4 teams battled it out for gold! One spectator, who was very familiar with the sport because he had lived in Thailand – where Sepak Takraw is like their hockey in Canada – said that he heard about the event on the radio and just had to come. He was very excited to learn that there was a national association and a national championship for the sport right here in Regina, then was duly impressed with the level of play that he got to see!
For the first time in the history of the sport, it was a team from Medicine Hat, AB, (recent immigrants from Thailand) that took Gold, winning the final match against Regina in two straight sets, 21-11 and 21-15. While Medicine Hat team was ecstatic for the Championship win, The Regina team was disappointed with having to settle for the Silver medal, mostly because they knew that they lost some of their consistency, missing a too many serves and spikes, which proved to be a determining factor in the end result. They knew that they did not play as well as they did in the previous semi-final match where they came back to defeat Edmonton in 2 subsequent decisive sets after losing the first set … scores were 12-21, 21-13, 21-15. In Sepak Takraw, the team that wins the best out of 3 sets wins the match, with each set going to 21 points, but the set must be won by a margin of at least 2 points, up to a ceiling of 25 points.
The Bronze medal went to the Calgary A team, who had a very relaxed, yet still impressive consistent playing style, after they defeated Edmonton in two straight sets, 21-15 and 21-19.
Next year’s Canadian Open Sepak Takraw Championship is already set to be once again in Regina (hosting policy dictates that hosting cities host the event 2 years in a row before it moves to another city/province), and will be held on the Labour Day weekend in 2023, instead of the August long weekend.