Thailand laments rival Games plan
Thailand laments rival Games plan
JAKARTA (JP): The 18th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Organizing Committee strongly opposed yesterday a proposal to stage a rival sporting meet in Hanoi, labeling the plan a threat to the region's harmony.
"We are very sorry about the proposal and totally against it," the committee's deputy secretary general Santiparb Tejavanija told reporters yesterday.
Tejavanija was commenting on the plan revealed by Rio Tambunan, a foreign affairs official at the National Sports Council (KONI) on Thursday. Tejavanija has been giving lectures in a five-day national sports leadership course, which concluded today.
Rio said Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have reached an agreement to hold a sporting event contesting karate, wushu and wrestling only, ahead of the SEA Games in Chiang Mai. The committee decided last November to exclude the three events from 28 sports to be contested in the Dec. 9-17 Games. Rio said the proposal was a political maneuver to force the committee to reconsider its decision.
An emotion-filled Tejavanija, who called Tambunan a new person in the SEA Games affairs, said that staging rival events would spoil the 36-year-old tradition of the Games.
"There is no need to press against us. We don't care about it," said Tejavanija. He added that the committee would not reconsider admitting those three events into the medal events list.
"The selection of the sports has finished and received agreement from all participating countries," he said.
He denied rumors saying that the committee dropped the three sports after a plan to include Thailand's traditional martial art was turned down.
"The Thailand National Olympic Committee is the first to reject the proposal," Tejavanija said. "We never did any bargaining in selecting the sports."
Beyond capacity
Tejavanija, who is also the treasurer of Thailand's National Olympic Committee, said the organizing committee has tried to fulfill expectations from participating countries as best it could, but admitted that the host had limited capacities.
"We agreed to have the traditional martial art silat olahraga, traditional boat races and other sports which Indonesia can excel in the Games. To the contrary, we have only rugby," Tejavanija cited examples to confirm that the selection procedures ran fairly.
Tejavanija said the committee did not favor karate since it has never been contested in the Olympic Games. It also refused to include wrestling, a traditional Olympic sport, and wushu since Thailand has no activities in either sports.
The committee picked two compulsory sports, swimming and track and field, and all 19 secondary sports: archery, badminton, basketball, bowling (ten pin), boxing, cycling, fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, judo, sepak takraw, shooting, soccer, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and yachting.
It also gave approval to eight third category sports, as suggested by the SEA Games rules. They include billiard, equestrian, rowing, rugby, silat olahraga, squash, taekwondo and traditional boat races.
The 18th SEA Games are expecting 6,000 athletes and officials. They will be accommodated in a new athlete village during the competitions.
The Thailand government has spent US$50 million on the construction of sports facility projects in Chiang Mai.
All facilities are expected to be completed three months before the opening ceremony. (amd)