This year's SEA Games in Indonesia again unearthed a number of 'exotic' events some of which I've heard for the first time.

It depends on how you look at it. As a regional sports extravaganza the SEA Games tries to introduce some unusual domestic sports/games to showcase their existence and maybe to create more fun and excitement rather than the usual dominant Olympic-style events.

So I guess we should widen our outlook and embrace them as part of the SEA Games spirit.


The Star Online > Sports
Tuesday February 8, 2011

Hockey omitted from list of sports for the 2011 SEA Games

By S. RAMAGURU


KUALA LUMPUR: It is confirmed. Hockey will not be featured in the SEA Games in Indonesia in November.

But there is a possibility that the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) may hold the SEA Cup to make up for hockey's exclusion from the regional Games.

The SEA Cup was first held in 2009 when hockey was not included in the Laos SEA Games. Bangkok hosted the SEA Cup and Malaysia, represented by the Project 2013 team, won the title after beating Singapore in the final.

The 26th SEA Games, which will be held in Jakarta and Palembang from Nov 11-25, will have 43 sports featuring 542 events.

There will be six new events, which the host country are allowed to select. They are bridge, paragliding, roller sports, shorinji kempo, vovinam and wall-climbing. These sports will have a total of 72 events.

Vovinam is a Vietnamese martial arts (with and without weapons) while shorinji kempo is another form of Japanese martial arts.

The Olympic Games sports included in the programme are archery (recurve and compound), aquatics (diving, swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo), athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football (futsal), golf, gymnastics, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball (beach and indoor), weightlifting and wrestling (freestyle and grego).

Sports from the Asian Games which have been included are baseball, billiards and snooker, bowling, karate, sepaktakraw, softball, soft tennis and wushu.

Six sports from the previous SEA Games retained are chess, fin swimming, pencak silat, petanque, traditional boat race and water ski.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary general Datuk Sieh Kok Chi confirmed yesterday that the Indonesian organising committee decided on the 43 sports last week.