SE Asian sports officials select sports for SEAG

SE Asian sports officials select sports for SEAG

Associated Press, Hanoi

Sports officials from the 10 Southeast Asian countries have agreed unanimously on 21 events to be included in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games to be held in Vietnam in 2003, state-controlled media reported Saturday.

The 21 sports decided at a two-day meeting in Hanoi are athletics, aquatics, handball, football, volleyball, basketball, sepak takraw, karate, judo, cycling, badminton, taekwondo, wushu, wrestling, pencak silat, tennis, canoeing, shooting, table tennis, bodybuilding and gymnastics, the Lao Dong (Labor) trade union newspaper said.

Ten other events will be considered for conclusion in the official program later this year, the newspaper said.

Those 10 events are diving, chess and shuttlecock kicking - proposed by Vietnam - and archery, weightlifting, fencing, rowing, billiards-snooker, petanque and boxing, it said.

The SEA Games, the biggest sporting event in the region, is held every two years.

The previous SEA Games was in Malaysia. Vietnam will host the next SEA Games in November 2003, while the 2005 SEA Games will be hosted by the Philippines.