The Beijing Teqball Challenge was played at the foot of the Great Wall of China ©FITEQ

Hundreds of athletes played for titles at the Beijing Teqball Challenge in Juyongguan as a part of the International Teqball Federation's (FITEQ) partnership with the Beijing Olympic Development Association (BODA) to grow the sport in China.

Following four qualifying rounds, 12 men's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles teams competed at the bottom of the Great Wall of China.

Li Bowen won gold medals in the men's singles and men's doubles, wining the second title with Han Yi, while Dong Gang and Xing Wei triumphed in the mixed doubles.

More than 400 athletes competed across the three categories, FITEQ reports.

Teqball was officially launched in China in September 2020 when it featured at the Beijing Olympic City Sports Culture Festival.

This coincided with the beginning of FITEQ's partnership with BODA, the body leading legacy projects from the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Three teqball categories were held at the competition ©FITEQ
Three teqball categories were held at the competition ©FITEQ

More recently, Beijing staged the Winter Olympics and Paralympics this year.

China's record on human rights and sporting bodies' relationships with the country were a key talking point in the build-up and last week a delayed United Nations (UN) report concluded "serious human rights violation have been committed" in the Xinjiang region against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN's former High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote allegations of "patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention" and "individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence" in Xinjiang are "credible".

China has persistently denied the accusations and claims the camps in question are training centres for rooting out Islamic extremism and separatism.

Teqball is due to be a medal sport at the Asian Beach Games in Sanya in China next year.