SEAG to feature 440 medal events
JAKARTA (JP): The Southeast Asian Games Federation Executive Committee Meeting agreed yesterday that the upcoming 19th Southeast Asian Games will feature 440 medal events in 34 sports.
Rio Tambunan, the National Sports Council's foreign affairs deputy, told a press conference at the Dusit Hotel, Mangga Dua, West Jakarta, that all countries agreed to feature 440 events in the Games, which will be staged here from Oct. 10 to Oct. 19 next year.
"Officially, all 10 countries agreed to feature 440 sports. That's why the meeting ended much more quickly than scheduled," he said.
The meeting, which was led by honorary member SS Dhillon of Singapore, finished three hours earlier than scheduled. The 10 competing countries each sent a representative to the meeting. Indonesia was represented by Mohammad Sarengat, the council's official.
At the last Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 334 gold medals were offered in 28 sports. Indonesia's 455 athletes made up more than a fifth of the 2,166 participants.
Next year's Games will feature track and field, archery, badminton, basketball, billiards and snooker, body building, boxing, canoeing, cycling, fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, judo, karate, pencak silat, rowing, sepaktakraw, shooting, soccer, softball, squash, swimming (including diving, synchronized swimming and water polo), table tennis, taekwondo, ten pin bowling, tennis, traditional boat racing, volleyball (including beach volleyball), water skiing, weightlifting, wrestling, martial arts and yachting.
"We want to refer to all Olympic Games sports," Rio said, "It is not a trick for us to take over the title."
Rio said that although Indonesia really wants to be the number one again in the Games it has to be fair in hosting the biennial event.
At the last Games some of the 10 participating countries complained about Thailand's do or die tactics to steal the overall title from Indonesia.
Thailand won 157 golds, 98 silvers and 91 bronzes while Indonesia finished second with 77 golds, 67 silvers and 77 bronzes. The Philippines trailed in third with 33 golds, 48 silvers and 62 bronze medals.
However, Rio said that the council has yet to finish its task of lobbying other countries to feature the 34 sports.
"If any participants withdraw seven days prior to the Games then there is a possibility that the event will be scratched."
Indonesia was appointed to host the Games because Vietnam, which was initially elected, forfeited the honor saying it could not do the job. For the first time in SEA Games history, the region biggest sports gathering will be conducted in cooperation with an underwriting consortium, which is chaired by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.
The centralized national training program will start next month to prepare the country's athletes to hold off Thailand's domination and regain the overall title, which Indonesia has won eight times since competing at the Games for the first time in 1977.
Some sports organizations, like swimming, boxing, and taekwondo, plan to send their best athletes abroad for overseas training. (yan)