The 8th Asian Gateball Championship was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China on the 13th to 15th December 2024. It was early winter with temperatures between -1 to 8 degrees each day.

Our hosts were the Asian Gateball Union, the Chinese Gateball Association and Hangzhou Gateball Association. Volunteers from Hangzhou Gateball Association assisted us throughout our visit as did our interpreters Jo, Georgia and Yuki who were invaluable to us during our stay.

The Australian teams stayed at the Jinma Palace Hotel in Hangzhou.

The event was held at the Xiaoshan District Sports Center, Hangzhou City Stadium, home of the local football club. Bus transport took us each day between the accommodation and the venue.

A practice day was held on Friday 13th December and a welcome dinner was hosted at the Jinma Palace on the Friday evening.

The tournament commenced on Saturday 14th December with an opening ceremony prior to the games. Sixty four teams from China, Hong Kong China, Macau China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia participated in the event. The teams of each country marched out under their flag and Kaelan Sweatman was the Australian flag bearer.

The tournament concluded on Sunday 15th December with the final and a closing and award ceremony. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places were all won by China.

Four teams from Australia participated in the event.

Australia A: Philip Brown (C), David Pryor, Cheryl O’Dwyer, Ruth Mulvaney, Kevin Maloney and Kathie Grant.

Australia A defeated Hong Kong Team 7 11-7 and were defeated by the Chinese teams 23 and 11,  21-7 and 16-8 respectively.

Australia B: Steve Kele (C), Cheryl Kele, Emma Mauceri, Kaelan Sweatman, Crystal Carling and Warren Dowse.

Australia B defeated China team 7 12-11 and were defeated by China team 26 22-10 and Hong Kong Team 2 13-8.

Australia C: Geoff Crook (C), Helen Chalmers, Clare Newton, Peter Dale and Keith Chur-Hansen.

Australia C were defeated by Kyungnam Hapcheon Bagbalbagjoong Korea 16-7, Hong Kong Team 11 15-5 and China Team 3 18-7. 

Australia D: Julia Tai (C), Ros Crowe, Maddi Crowe, Petula Shun and Kathie Maloney.

Australia D were defeated by Hualien Chinese Taipei 17-6, China Team 9 21-7 and China Team 21 21-7.

The Australian team participants ranged from 18 to 75 plus years in age and each of us learnt something new from attending the event. It was wonderful to see old friends from previous events and to make new friends from around the world. 

The event attracted major sponsors and suppliers who had stalls at the event which help to deliver the live streaming of the games and uniforms for the volunteers amongst other things for the event. 

World Gateball Union President Mr Keiichi Imagawa presented Gateball Australia with a memento plaque for the event and many of the international teams exchanged small gifts with the Australian team players including local snacks and food, hat pins and badges.

Three Australian referees were accredited as International Gateball Referees and during our visit, Geoff Crook, Ros Crowe and Philip Brown were presented with their accreditation by World Gateball Union representative Kentaro Yamagishi.

We are so grateful to our hosts who showed us local hospitality and took good care of us while we were in China. We thank all of the teams for their sportsmanship and friendship and look forward to playing internationally again soon.