Teqball World Championships Take Budapest

(ATR) The Teqball World Championships began on Friday in Budapest.

The three-day annual event determines the world champions in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.

The world championships are in the sport's hometown for the second time in three years, with the 2018 event held in Reims, France.

Viktor Huszar, co-founder of the sport and a president of the International Teqball Federation (FITEQ), answered questions from Around the Rings on the eve of the championships.

Around the Rings: Teqball is quite new -- less than six years old. Tell us about how the idea came to you and how long it took to develop the game, the rules, etc.

Viktor Huszar:Teqball is the brainchild of three Hungarians: a former professional footballer Gábor Borsányi, alongside György Gattyán, Teqball’s business strategist, and myself, a computer scientist.

It took three years to calculate the perfect dimensions and develop the official rules. All started with a concrete table tennis table, but we realised that the curve and pioneering use of composite materials can result in the perfect bounce of a football. This is the recipe for our new sport.

ATR:The world championships get underway this week in Budapest. The number of countries represented more than doubled from 2017 to 2018. If my count is correct you will have 43 countries this year. What is your target?

VH:We have 58 countries this year. A record number of countries, but we are so new, every year is a record, this is the third World Championships and I would be very disappointed if we would be less than 100 countries for the fifth!

ATR: I was happy to see the US among the competitors! Where are you looking in terms of growing the sport?

VH:Everywhere! Sounds like a cliché, but teqball is a versatile sport and can be played anywhere, anytime and by people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. The youngest player at the World Championships is nine and the oldest is 50. And we are loving it.

The US loves teqball, and using an expression from our sport, we expect to ~smash~ the market in 2020. We are getting ready for the launch.

ATR: How are you getting the news out and encouraging people to give Teqball a go?

VH:I hope the news is already out, but we know that we are still a very young sport, unknown to many. We are privileged to have amazing ambassadors like Ronaldinho, Robert Pires and Carles Puyol, who all have a real passion for teqball. Their support has been very helpful in spreading the values of the teqball and getting people involved all over the world. We also have emerging teqball stars, who are central to the growth of the sport.

As a youth-focused sport, we are capitalising on the opportunities social media provides to increase engagement in sport. Teqball’s social media has 2 million followers, who share the exciting daily clips from all over the world. Incredible content.

In terms of participation, we support the establishment of national federations in as many countries as possible, as fast as possible. The framework has been designed, now we evaluate the first feedback. The national federations that already exist have been key to the organic growthof the sport in their respective countries.

ATR:The prize money is very appealing. Last year a total purse of $100,000. How much for this year?

VH:The total prize money for this year’s World Championships is $150,000 across the singles, doubles and mixed doubles categories. This is a 50% increase on the prize money at last year’s event, which shows how fast the sport is growing!

ATR: What is the breakdown between men and women right now? Would your ideal be 50-50? Or do you expect it will remain more men (or more women)?

VH:We have 22 female athletes competing this year. In teqball, we don’t believe in ideal breakdowns. It grows organically, as it is a non-contact sport, we expect many more women to join very soon. I prefer that we don’t just speak about gender equality, but rather keep quiet and focus on the work in this area.

ATR: What will be different for these championships from the previous two?

VH:The gameplay has been developing rapidly, it will be more spectacular to watch the finals, more drama, emotions, just like in a good movie!

ATR: In looking over your site it appears that Teqball already has some spinoffs. (Teqvoly, Teqpong) What's next?

VH:These are other sports disciplines that can be played on the teqball table, which are at a much earlier stage of growth than teqball. We were not planning any new disciplines, but grassroots activities have started to pop up everywhere. Isn’t this great? Any sports discipline played on the teqball tables grows organically. We are excited to see what, if anything, comes next!

ATR: You have reached a number of milestones already. Which are the most impressive or meaningful to you?

VH:The last few years have been a whirlwind journey and there are so many milestones that we are very proud of to choose from! One that really stands out is the official recognition of Teqball as a sport by Continental Associations. Teqball actually became the world’s fastest recognised sport in August 2018 when FITEQ was officially recognised by the Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA) and in 2019 it was officially recognised by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA). These were both very significant milestones for FITEQ, as they paved the way for inclusion on these Continental Associations’ events.

Next year, teqball will make its debut as a competition sport at the Asian Beach Games in Sanya, which will help us to grow the sport even further with our amazing fans in China and throughout Asia. Very proud of this.

ATR:Teqball has Olympic ambitions. What are your plans and what is the timeline for getting it onto the program?

VH:Thank you for this question. Even the thought of teqball and Olympics in one sentence makes us honoured, and we would like to be as moderate as we can about this.

Certainly, I hope that as a consequence of our work, maybe one day the decision makers will consider it as a potential sport for the programme. We are young as a sport, with many juvenile mistakes, but driven by emotions and a good heart.

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