ORGANIZERS of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia have lined up 34 sports offering 342 gold medals, but may be forced to include a handful more disciplines before the final deadline.
Philippine Olympic Committee sports and rules committee member Julian Camacho was in Kuala Lumpur last week for a meeting among members of the SEA Games Federation.
Camacho graced Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate, and bared the list of sports to be contested in the next biennial meet scheduled Aug. 17 to 31 in Malaysia.
Included in the calendar of events so far are athletics, aquatics (swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open water swimming), archery, badminton, basketball, men’s boxing, bowling, cricket, cycling, equestrian, football, futsal, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating (figure and speed), karate, lawn ball, pencak silat, petanque, rugby 7, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, snooker and billiards, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, indoor volleyball, water-skiing, men’s weightlifting, and wushu.
Camacho said there are countries, including the Philippines, lobbying for the inclusion of other sports like baseball, judo, triathlon, and wrestling, and additional events in the sports already in the list.
The POC has asked the different national sports associations to formalize their request for inclusion if they’re not yet in the list or their requests for additional events.
“We’re giving them until March 9. We also asked them to write their own IFs (international federation) if they want to make an appeal. We will gather all the requests before we submit them to the SEA Games organizers,” he said in the session presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
The next SEAG Federation meeting is scheduled July 13 and 14, and then another one will be held in August or exactly one year before the Games.
Camacho said the Wushu Federation of the Philippines will strongly suggest the inclusion of sanda (combat) events in the next SEA Games after Malaysia focused on the taolu (form) events, where the hosts have better chances of winning.
“Malaysia wants 17 events in taolu and none in sanda, where our Filipino athletes are good. Malaysia is not good in these combat events,” said Camacho.