That will not deter Belgium from sending a 72-strong delegation to the event, including 46 athletes in 11 disciplines, including, yes, beach handball and tug-of-war. In fact, Belgium has been represented at the games every year since they were launched in 1981.

In that year, Belgium's medal haul was nine, including three gold and six bronze. In the last games, held in the German city of Duisberg in 2005, the country's athletes brought home 11 medals, including two golds. Philippe Preat, who heads the Belgian team, hopes to win at least 10 medals this year. "Anything else will be disappointing," he states firmly.

Kaohsiung, in south Taiwan, will welcome some 4,500 athletes from more than 100 countries for the 11-day event. Some 300,000 tickets have been sold to this first international multi-sport event to ever be held in Taiwan.

There are 35 Flemish on the Belgian team, and athletes will be competing under the Belgian flag. "They won't be there as Flemings or Walloons but as Belgians - and proud of it," says Preat.. "This is an important sporting event, and they will do their very best for the whole country."

Preat is the deputy sports director of the Belgian Olympic Committee and was team leader at four Olympics. "The selection criteria for the World Games were based on one main principle: each athlete should be a potential medal winner."

The 31-sport World Games differ from the Olympics in one obvious way: the participants in Taiwan will be mostly amateurs, including one of Belgium's best medal hopes, water skier Kate Adriaensen.

Some of the sports, such as billiards and boules, are, of course, not found on the Olympic agenda. But, says Roland Forthomme, Belgium's representative in billiards, this does not detract in any way from their sense of professionalism. "Just like our Olympic counterparts, we, too, have had to work really hard to get onto the team."

William Van Der Biest, of the two-man Belgian boules team, meanwhile, is on a mission: "I'm really looking forward to Taiwan and showing the rest of the world how boules should be played!"

There are, in fact, a sprinkling of professionals on the team, including Wouter Hebbrecht, an ex-world champion in roller sports, and Diego Vandeschrick from Liège, a former European champion and world bronze medallist in karate. In addition, the five-strong air sports team, who finished third in the last world championships and are current European champions, are all drawn from the ranks of the Belgian army.

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