Tennis and weightlifting no-shows in 2005 SEAG
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia's medal prospects for the 2005 South East Asian (SEA) Games have suffered an early setback with tennis and weightlifting being excluded from a tentative list of 34 sports.
Manila will host the 23rd edition of the biennial multi-event showcase, with 10 countries in the Southeast Asian region expected to compete.
A SEA Games federation meeting last week decided tennis and weightlifting would be left off the sports list, according to National Sports Council (KONI) secretary-general Djohar Arifin Husin.
Djohar, who attended the meeting, said on Monday the federation would hold another meeting in October to scrap another four sports from the list to fix it at 30.
Support from at least four participating countries are needed for a sport to be included in the Games' medal events, and six are required to propose a sport for possible inclusion.
Tennis failed to obtain the minimum support with only Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam being proponents while weightlifting got support from Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.
Djohar was still hopeful the next meeting would fail to meet its quota of 30 sports and that either tennis or weightlifting would be options to complete the list, although he admitted this was unlikely.
Given its past record in these events, the exclusion of tennis and weightlifting would be a big loss for Indonesia.
Indonesian lifters emerged the overall winners in the 2003 SEA Games in Vietnam, taking five of 13 gold medals. Meanwhile, their tennis compatriots won three of seven golds on offer.
Besides tennis and weightlifting, KONI appears to have failed to push for fin-diving, hockey and rock-climbing for inclusion.
According to Djohar, the 34 events to be discussed in October's meeting include aquatic sports, track and field, badminton, billiard and snooker, bowling, canoeing and kayaking, dragon boat races, dance, arnis (the traditional Filipino martial art of stick fighting), petanque, golf, equestrian, sepak takraw, triathlon and windsurfing.