Sports for 2019 SEAG approved
The SEA Games Council has given its stamp of approval on the list of sports that will be played in the 30th SEA Games to be hosted by the Philippines next year.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas received the information from Celso Dayrit, former POC chief and current chairman of the SEA Games Council executive committee.
Dayrit attended a meeting of the SEA Games Council last week in Bangkok, where member countries unanimously approved the list of sports for the 2019 SEA Games.
The SEA Games sports committee headed by POC chairman Abraham Tolentino prepared the list of sports for the next SEA Games.
“This is a positive development which validated the decisions made by the SEA Games Council in the Manila meeting last May,” said Tolentino.
However, the final approval of the sports for the 2019 SEA Games will be made in the next Council meeting in Manila in November.
“I am happy to report that the SEA Games Federation Office accepted all the proposed sports submitted by POC, with the addition of indoor hockey, floorball and vovinam,” said Dayrit.
Vargas said the list is also subject to compliance by the various national sports associations (NSAs) regarding their capability to carry on with the hosting, and the recognition of their respective international federations (IFs) and the POC itself.
“I look forward to the final approval of these recommended sports this November. This is the maximum number, so there can no longer be any addition, but this could be lessened,” said Vargas.
In the list of the approved sports are Category 1 (mandatory) sports athletics and aquatics; Category 2 sports archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards, bowling, boxing, chess, cycling, dance sports, equestrian/ polo, hockey (indoor), fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating, judo, karatedo, modern pentathlon, muay, pencak silat, rowing, rugby 7’s, sailing/windsurfing, sepak takraw, shooting, softball, soft tennis, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, traditional boat race, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, petanque and surfing for a 44.
There are 12 sports in Category 3. They are arnis, E-sports, jujitsu, kick-boxing, kurash, lawn bowls, obstacle course, floorball, sambo, skateboarding, underwater hockey and vovinam.