Karim hits the roof over rejection, fears sanction

The appeals to include long distance and walking events in athletics in the Philippines SEA Games in December have been rejected.

And the hosts’ decision has earned the wrath of Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF).

MAF have appealed to the Philippine SEA Games Organising Committee (Philsoc) last month to include the men’s and women’s 5,000m and 10,000m and also the men’s 20km and women’s 10km walk events.

But the Philsoc maintained their decision to drop the six events when they finalised the event for the Games yesterday.

They have stuck to their plan to include the mixed gender relay 4x100m and 4x400m events.

A furious MAF president Datuk Karim Ibrahim said he feared the Games would face sanction by the Asian Athletics Association (AAA).

“The six events are traditional and Olympics events,” said Karim.

“They are contested in all the major Games in the world and they’ve been part of the SEA Games since its inauguration in Bangkok in 1959.

“The other SEA Games countries are also annoyed and upset with the Philsoc for leaving out the six athletics events.

“Even the AAA are shocked. All athletics meets need permit from the Asian body.

“If the AAA don’t recognise the SEA Games athletics competition, then, all the records broken during the Games will not be recognised,” added Karim.

Malaysia are crying foul as they have invested time, money and resources in long distance and walk events.

At the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, Malaysia did well to win gold in the women’s 10km walk.

A total of 56 sports are hosted in the SEA Games from Dec 1-10 in four different provinces in the Philippines.

It offers a total of 524 medals.