Myanmar to send 245 athletes to SEA Games

Myanmar to send 245 athletes to SEA Games

YANGON, Myanmar (AP): Myanmar will be hoping to bag gold
medals in traditional boat racing next month in the 20th
Southeast Asia Games in Brunei, a top sports official said
Saturday.

But other sports that Myanmar won gold in at the last SEA
Games - women's weightlifting, wushu, body building and women's
sepak takraw - have been dropped from the current edition.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, will send a 245-strong
contingent, including 144 athletes to compete in 12 sports, said
Maung Win, the Sports Ministry's director of sports and physical
education.

"Myanmar lays high hopes on the traditional boat racing
events," he said. "Myanmar's team bagged two golds and several
silvers in both women's and men's events in the 19th SEA Games in
Jakarta."

The 97 men and 47 women will compete in track and field,
billiards and snooker, bowling, boxing, soccer, golf, karate,
traditional boat races, sepak takraw, swimming, taekwondo and
pencak silat.

Speaking at a meeting with athletes and their team managers
Thursday, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a top leader in the military
government and head of the national Olympic Committee, urged the
athletes to win.

Khin Nyunt said that even though some sports Myanmar excels in
have been dropped, the country's best athletes have been selected
for the Brunei lineup.

Khin Nyunt said that the government and local and foreign
businesses had contributed cash and kind to the Myanmar team.