Sun, sea, sand... and sporting excellence

Lightning raids in kabaddi, hot shots in handball and delicate ball-control in soccer — the 6th Asian Beach Games in Sanya have it all, and much more, with a unique sports program that's captivating the world.

With the coastal city's sun-drenched shores providing a breathtaking backdrop, the 2026 Asian Beach Games, which opened in Sanya, Hainan province, on Wednesday, have shed new light on some of the more exotic iterations of popular continental sports.

From the hustle and tussle of kabaddi, to the acrobatic flair of handball, the Games' unique conditions — hosting these sports on warm and soft sand, where unstable footing requires more strength and balance, or in the ocean in the case of water polo, where surging waves prove hard to tame — have added an extra layer of intrigue to these already entertaining activities.

Almost half of the total 14 sports, consisting of 62 medal events, being contested in Sanya are not currently on the Olympic program, yet have drawn immediate and enthusiastic interest from a local crowd that has found these niche events fittingly fascinating in the context of their coastal city.

"It looks just like the chase-and-catch game of tag, and, at some points, resembles wrestling on the beach, which is pretty fun," Wang Xinying, a travel agent in Sanya, said of her first experience watching live beach kabaddi on Thursday.