Thailand conjures up scenes of palm trees, pristine waters, white, sandy beaches and resorts for relaxation. But in behind all this is a vibrant country of sports-mad people and thankfully, for our community, water polo is part of that culture.

The country has been playing water polo for a long time and teams have been competing in Asian Games and South-East Asian Games for decades. There are also annual tournaments staged to attract teams from throughout Asia and Oceania. Vibrant competitions have been burgeoning in recent years, but these are mainly for men. What about women?

Scoring Goals made contact with Nitayakarn Kunrapeegayson, a referee at the recent world championships in Chengdu.

She explained that women’s water polo in Thailand was based on three water polo training centres established by the Thailand Aquatics Association in 2017 — Chiangmai Water Polo Academy (North), Korat Water Polo Academy (North-east) and Hat Yai Water Polo Academy (South). Each academy is tasked with trying to gather athletes interested in learning the sport. The main centre, however, is in the capital of Bangkok.

“Each year, the Thailand Aquatics Association announces for recruitment and testing to select athletes to join the training camp for national athletes at least once a year during the summer, which is the school break. There will be children from each regional water polo academy applying to join the selection,” she said.

Currently, the pool for selection is not large with about 60-70 women playing water polo in Thailand, aged between nine and 35 years.

And finance is derived solely from government grants. “The athletes also must train hard to push for better performance and receive more budget in the following years. 

“To gain interest from the private sector and expect sponsorship money for athletes is something we have to work hard for.”

Thailand made a huge impression this year with the under-16 team finishing 14th of 22 teams in Manisa, Turkiye and the under-18 team claiming 13th position of 16 in Chengdu, China. These followed 15th place at the World Aquatics Championships at Budapest 2022.

When asked about the team achieving four wins and three losses in Chengdu, Kunrapeegayson said: “Everyone is very proud to be part of the team. It's a very big step for Thailand.”

On being asked what the players thought of competing in Chengdu, she said: “We enjoyed this trip because we had hope. Hope that Thailand's world ranking will improve.”

This is did, because Thailand entered the round-robin tournament for 13th classification and won all three matches with the decider a sudden-death penalty-shootout victory over South Africa. She said that it helped build belief that there was nothing greater than effort… “effort that comes from perseverance, practice and persistence”. 

How will this result be seen in Thailand?

“This result will allow water polo to receive more budget for excellence development from the government sector, in terms of personnel, finance and equipment, and also attract more interest from the private sector,” Kunrapeegayson said.

“Determination, perseverance, hard work, goals and hopes” are what drove the team in Chengdu,” she said.

“The World Aquatics is a great place for water polo players who dream of visiting at least once in their lives or many times, if possible. It is a pride of being born as a Thai to represent Thailand in the competition. 

“We fight and strive to win every time we compete. Even though we don't always win, overall, we are always proud because we fought as hard as we could.”
Scoring goals at the lower end of the tournament is just as important as those battling for gold at the top end.

For Raksina Rueangsappaisan, her task was to shoot goals and plenty of them. So much so that she was awarded the tournament’s top goal-scorer award with 26 goals and was named in the Media All Star team.

Raksina was born in Chiang Mai Province in northern Thailand and started her water polo training at Chiang Mai Water Polo Academy at the age of 11, being selected for the Thailand national team camp at the age of 13. Now she is 17 years old. 

“When the head coach was contacted by the tournament organisers that she had won the top-scorer award, we were very excited. This is the result of hard work that has become an inspiration for young water polo players in Thailand,” Kunrapeegayson said.

Thanidakarn Kwantongtanaree (16) was another high scorer to impress, as she did in Manisa, Turkiye for the under-16 championships where she was the captain and finished with 15 goals. Playing up a grade, she scored 12 goals in Chengdu.

Born in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Kwantongtanaree  first started practising water polo at the Korat Water Polo Academy (North-east) at the age of 11 and was recruited to the national water polo training centre in Bangkok at the age of 13.

The tenacity of the Thailand team in Chengdu was well noted.

“We practise hard and if we can defeat one opponent, we can defeat the whole world by the same principle, by defeating the next opponent one by one,” Kunrapeegayson said.

There seems to be no stopping these Thais as the planning is already in place to take the next step in World Aquatics with continued participation in 2025.

The Final Word

“I want the news of this team's success to receive more attention from the media in Thailand. I want water polo to be known and people to like it like football. I want water polo to receive more attention and more children to practise, so that we will have more athletes like Raksina,” Kunrapeegayson said.