MANILA, Philippines - Forty sports, 15 more than those contested last year in Laos, have been initially approved by the Southeast Asian Games Federation to be included in the calendar of events in the 26th edition of the biennial conclave next year in Jakarta.
This was announced by athletics president Go Teng Kok who represented the Philippine Olympic Committee in the SEA Games Federation meeting held May 29 in Jakarta during the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.
“There are actually 42 sports that was recommended and approved by the assembly, but futsal was placed under football and soft tennis under lawn tennis, thus reducing the number to 40,”Go said.
As in the past Games, disciplines to be contested have been categorized into three – compulsory sports athletics and swimming under Category I, other Olympic Games and Asian Games sports under Category II, disciplines outside the Olympics and Asiad and indigenous sports under Category III.
Bodybuilding, which was listed under Category III, was also approved for inclusion although all cases brought to the Federation involving drug use must be settled first, Go said.
He also said that the total number of sports could still be increased as host Indonesia has intimated it wanted as many sports as possible.
Sports played both in the Olympics and Asian Games under Category II are archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards and snooker, bowling, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, karatedo, rowing, sailing, sepak takraw, softball, soft tennis, shooting, taekwondo, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
Baseball and softball have been reinstated along with soft tennis.
Besides bodybuilding, other sports under Category III are chess, fin swimming, kempo, pencat silat, traditional boat race, water skiing, petanque, muay and arnis.
Go added the move to include bridge, wall-climbing, roller-skating and paragliding, will be discussed further during the federation’s next meeting this November.
The Federation also accepted host Indonesia’s proposal to spread the events to be disputed in several parts of the country – Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, Semarang in Central Java, and Palembang.