It was a 'victory in defeat' for the Indian men's sepaktakraw team which settled for its maiden Asian Games bronze medal after being beaten by a formidable Thailand in the semi-finals here yesterday. The Indian men's regu team lost to Thailand 0-2 but picked up a bronze as both the losing semifinalists are also awarded a medal.

Sepaktakraw, which directly translates to kick the ball, has been part of the Games program since 1990. India has participated since the 2006 edition and is slowly catching with the South East Asian countries, where the sport has a huge following. Thailand has won a whopping 22 gold medals at the Games and Myanmar is a distant second in the list with five gold.