Less arbitrary sports pushed

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) chairman Monico Puentevella will propose to limit a host country’s prerogative to add sports in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games calendar to three or four and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Richie Garcia said it’s a move in the right direction.

In the SEA Games, there are three categories of sports. The first category lists the compulsory Olympic sports of athletics and swimming. The second category is composed of other sports played in the Olympics and Asian Games. The third category includes sports not played in the Olympics and Asian Games. Under the third category are indigenous sports and unique disciplines recommended by the host country, presumably because of high medal probabilities.

 Puentevella led a POC delegation to the SEA Games Federation council and executive committee meetings in Bali last Feb. 25. The meetings decided the final list of sports for the SEA Games set in Indonesia, primarily in Palembang, on Nov. 11-25. Included in the third category are six sports making their debut in the SEA Games – the Vietnamese martial art of vovinam, roller skating, wall climbing, shorinji kempo, bridge and paragliding.

Frank Elizalde, who represents the Philippines in the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said it was “ridiculous” to play certain sports in the SEA Games on the basis of a host country’s prerogative – sometimes, at the expense of regular Olympic sports. He questioned the abuse of the third category which allows a host country to insert even indigenous sports.

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When the Philippines hosted the SEA Games in 2005, six sports made their debut in the biennial conclave – arnis, handball (an Olympic sport), finswimming, baseball, muay and triathlon. Of the six sports, only finswimming and baseball are in the menu for this year’s SEA Games.

Garcia said it’s a must for the SEA Games to hold at least all the Olympic sports. He mentioned that it was recently reported the swimming facility in the Jakabaring Sports Complex in Palembang is still not finished and the competition will likely be held in Jakarta.

Puentevella said 80 percent of what the POC delegation lobbied for in the SEA Games Federation meetings went through. He clarified that the reinsertion of billiards meant bringing back the 8-ball and 9-ball singles events for men. A push to include 10-ball was rejected. Puentevella also noted that contrary to what was previously reported, snooker is also in the SEA Games calendar. There was confusion in that when the 8-ball singles event for men was included, the speculation was it was at the expense of 9-ball. Puentevella said both 8-ball and 9-ball singles events for men will be played, enhancing the Philippines’ chances to collect more gold medals.

“We don’t know vovinam and kempo but Indonesia pointed out that in 2005, they also didn’t know arnis,” said Puentevella, the only POC official allowed to speak at the executive committee meeting. “I delivered an emotional and passionate speech at the beginning. We thought Indonesia would play hardball but they didn’t. They were reasonable, gracious and accommodating. All they told us was they wouldn’t allow more sports if it meant additional costs and venues. But they were open to swapping sports. Because of cost considerations, additional team events were struck out.”

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Puentevella was joined by POC first vice president Manny Lopez, treasurer Julian Camacho and secretary-general Steve Hontiveros in the Bali meetings.

“Indonesia apologized to the member countries for finalizing the list of sports so late,” said Puentevella. “Manny (Lopez) pointed out that under the rules, the list should have been confirmed a year before the staging of the Games, not nine months before.”

Puentevella noted that a SEA Games Federation sport and rules committee meeting was held in Jakarta last September and objections to the competition agenda should’ve been raised then.

“Thailand probably got 50 percent of the sports they lobbied for,” said Puentevella. “Sports like squash, hockey and three-on-three basketball were not included in the final list. For sports in the third category, it’s a requirement that at least five countries will participate. But sometimes, some countries drop out. You’ll never know until the competition actually begins.”

In light of the haggling that has become a tradition in finalizing the sports calendar in the SEA Games, it’s high time this political mockery is exposed and ended. There should be an agreement that all Olympics sports must be in the priority list of events and may be struck out only if the host country is unable to provide facilities. Additionally, in the interest of local color, a host country may be allowed to include certain indigenous sports at its sole discretion but this must be limited to three at the most. Other events must be agreed on to comprise a regular calendar via a majority vote of the member countries so that there is continuity in the staging and athletes are not left wondering if they’ll play at all.