It had been more than a decade since a team from Thailand took part in the UCI Cycle-ball World Cup. Back in 2012, at the round organised in Muar (Malaysia), Buadum Noppharit and Thunwa Naknawa celebrated the UCI World Cup premiere for Thailand, finishing in tenth place.
Thirteen years on, Noppharit made his UCI World Cup comeback on 10 May at the second round of the 2025 UCI World Cup in in the Hong Kong Velodrome. With new partner Weerayuth Sonhachak at his side, he again finished tenth.
The duo (Rad Boy Thailand), which enjoyed enthusiastic support from the spectators across their five matches in Hong Kong, took the opportunity to promote the first international tournament in their home country: The Thailand Open in Chiang Mai on October 4.
New pairings fight for podium places
It was the two European teams present – RSV Großkoschen (Germany) and RS Altdorf III (Switzerland) – who fought for victory. Both teams dominated in the preliminary round and advanced to the semi-finals undefeated, even though neither had previously competed in their new respective pairings.
For Großkoschen, the German Cup runner-up and U23 European Champion Eric Lehmann played with Torben Noatnick, who stood in for Eric's twin brother Tim. Noatnick's biggest success to date had been sixth place at the 2024 U23 European Championships with Oliver Klante. Jari Kern and Matteo Baumann, who usually play in the second-highest Swiss National League B with different partners, competed for Altdorf.
In the semi-finals Großkoschen took a 5-1 victory over Yusuke Murakami/Yuma Takahashi (RSV Kobe/Japan), who had finished sixth at the 2024 UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships. Altdorf III defeated another Japanese team, Riku Akatsu/ Yutaro Kodaka (Tachikawa CSC 1/JPN), by the same margin.
UCI World Cup leader’s jersey changes hands
With a 3-0 victory in the final, Großkoschen’s Lehmann and Noatnick achieved their greatest international success to date and took possession of the UCI World Cup overall leader jersey. They are tied on points with the winners of the first round, RMC Stein II (Michael Birkner and Robert Mlady).
The match for third place in Hong Kong was an all-Japanese affair, with RSV Kobe finally taking a narrow victory (4:3) over Tachikawa CSC 1.
Hong Kong, which was hosting a UCI Cycle-ball World Cup round for the third time after 2013 and 2018, saw their best-placed team - Ka Kin Kenny Chan and Wing Tai Ho (KBTC-Flying Gravity) - finish sixth. It was a best result at this level for the reigning Asian Champions and winners of the national Hong Kong Series after a ninth position in 2024 and a seventh place in 2023.