STEEPLECHASE IN LIMBO

Women’s 3,000m event in danger of being dropped after disappointing response

THE women’s 3,000m steeplechase eventt willwill not likely take placce at next month’ss Kuala Lumpur Sea Games as it has so far attracted participants from only one country.

This was confirmed by Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary general Datuk Low Beng Choo yesterday.

“At the moment, as Tunkunku (Imran Tuanku Ja’afar) informed you the other day, it is cancelled. Only one country have registered athletes for this event,”even she said.

The steeplechase has so far seen interest from Vietnam as opposed to the 2015 Sea Games where six countries participated in the event with Indonesia’s Rini Budiarti winning the gold medal.

Beng Choo said Malaysia will not put forth athletes “for the sake of having the event”.e

“At the moment, we will have only 404 events excluding steeplechase unless there are favourable developments,” she added.

The track and field events will be held at National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Aug 1926 with 46 gold medals up for grabs.

Beng Choo also urged the concerned parties to be patient over the medal projection for the Sea Games.

“The National Sports Council (NSC) will do an analysis and come up with the projection as they only received the participation list of other countries recently,” she added.