MYANMAR teams have been ramping up their preparations recently to compete in the first Asian Beach Games, which will be held on the Indonesian island of Bali from October 18 to 26.

Included in the list of 14 sports that will be played at the games are beach soccer, sepak takraw, volleyball and body building, all of which Myanmar is expected to compete in.

And even though this competition will be new to all nations involved, several of the Myanmar teams heading to the event have been training hard to ensure they are competitive.

“We’ve built a sand football pitch near Thuwanna Stadium where we plan to train our footballers,” said U Soe Myint Lwin, the technical instructor for the Myanmar Football Federation.

He added that the federation is now looking for footballers who play well on sand and are keen to take part in the competition.

“We’ve announced through City FM and some news journals to any and all interested footballers to join us and apply for the squad through the federation’s technique committee,” he said.

“We will be picking a team from the national league but will focus on players who have plenty of beach football experience.

“Luck may play a fairly large role in the football tournament. I’ve never heard of any beach football events like this in Southeast Asia, so I think this will be new for all teams, which means we’ll all have an equal chance of winning,” he said.

In the body-building competition, Aung Khine Win, a gold medallist at the 24th Southeast Asian Games, will enter in 70-kilogram event, while Min Zaw Oo has entered into the 75kg class and Aung Swe Naing, a bronze medal winner at the SEA Games’ 80kg category.

U Kyaw Than, the secretary of the Myanmar Body Building Federation, said all of the men have been in training since June 1.

“Competing at the Asian level is tougher than the SEA Games for us. Korea, Japan and China are big teams and the host, Indonesia, is also a strong team,” he said.

Myanmar will also enter two teams into the beach volleyball competition, said U Thein Swe, the technical instructor for the Myanmar Volleyball Federation.

“We’ll enter with two teams of two players. We expect Japan, China and Iran to be strong competitors at the event,” he said, adding that reserve players have not yet been selected.

The final sport likely to see Myanmar participating is sepak takraw, with both men’s and women’s squads likely to fight hard at the event.

“Fifteen men and nine women have been at a training camp for this event since June 1,” said team captain, Kyaw Zin Moe, who is also secretary of the Myanmar Sepak Takraw Federation.

He said that players have also been training at the recently built sand pitch near Thuwunna Stadium, adding that both squads will go to Bali before the tournament to get used to the conditions.

“Hopefully, we can clinch a medal in Bali but I’ll know more about what results we can achieve after our training camp is completed,” he said.

A total of 45 countries will take part in the first Asian Beach Games.