Sunday February 8, 2004

SEA Games in danger of turning into a frivolous sports carnival

Comment by Rajes Paul

MALAYSIA beating Burma (now Myanmar) 9-1, Rabuan Pit scorching the lanes in a shoulder-to-shoulder race with the Thais, and Nurul Huda Abdullah ruling the waves.

Those are but some of the memories of the SEA Games, the heady rush of adrenalin, the feel-good factor that affects all in the country.The SEA Games were a springboard to excellence, with the likes of Lydia de Vega and M. Jegathesan going on to make their marks at Asian and, sometimes, Olympic levels.

How things have changed. Now, the Games have become a mockery. And Asian and Olympic-level excellence seems to be the farthest thing on the minds of the hosts.

Why else would anyone even consider dropping sports like football, badminton, cycling and shooting in favour of things like dance sport, arnis and chess.

Arnis? The martial-art-with-a-short-stick is the latest in a list of obscure sports that have made their way into the Games.

The hosts, in this case the Philippines, have their reasons. Or excuses.

Why host football and badminton if they can't conjure up a decent team/player and get a crowd to watch? Why host table tennis when Singapore's China-born players are set to sweep all the gold medals? And why spend money building a hockey turf to let Malaysia walk past the rest.

Ironically, it was Malaysia who started this trend, including sports like silat and wushu in the 1989 Games in Kuala Lumpur. We won 67 gold medals and finished second.

In 2001, we added sports like lawn bowls and squash. And we won 111 gold medals, and finished as champions.

With the Philippines dropping football and badminton, things are spiralling out of control and the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) have to step in now to straighten things out.

For starters, they could draw up three lists of sports, with 10 in an A-list, and 10 in a B-list and any number of sports in a third list.

All 10 sports in the A-list should be made mandatory in the Games. Now, only athletics and swimming are mandatory.

The host could the pick a minimum of five from the B-list and then, from the third list, pick any number of sport they want. That would at least ensure that 15 “real” sports would be contested in any Games.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi, who believes no sport is greater than the other, had a more drastic solution.

He suggests that all 28 sports in the Olympics be made compulsory at the SEA Games.

“But we must have a minimum of five countries taking part in each sport.

“Modern pentathlon, baseball, handball, field hockey and wrestling may not get the minimum five votes. Then, these sports will have to be dropped.”

The current rule states only three teams are needed for a sport to be included.

Then, he suggests, the hosts should be allowed to include a few non-Olympic sports that have a regional following – sports like pencak silat, sepaktakraw, wushu, tenpin bowling, billiards and such.

Malaysian Gymnastics Federation (MGF) secretary N. Shanmugarajah was more blunt.

“Currently, the hosts are the organising secretariat for the SEA Games. Maybe we should form a permanent secretariat from the SEAGF – like how it is done for the Olympic Games – to run the show,” he said.

Whatever route the SEAGF chooses to take, the time has come now to decide. The SEA Games is at a crossroads. It can stay as a springboard to the Olympics. Or it can degenerate into a frivolous carnival.

A decision is needed fast. Or it is sport as whole that will get the short end of the stick.

THE SPORTS UNDER THE OLYMPIC GAMES PROGRAMME

Total of 28 sports: 1. Aquatics (including swimming, water polo, diving and synchronised swimming), 2. Archery, 3. Athletics, 4. Badminton, 5. Basketball, 6. Baseball, 7. Boxing, 8. Canoeing, 9. Cycling (including track, road and mountain), 10. Equestrian,

11. Fencing, 12. Football, 13. Gymnastics, 14. Handball, 15. Hockey, 16. Judo, 17. Modern Pentathlon, 18. Rowing, 19. Sailing, 20. Shooting,

21. Softball, 22. Table tennis, 23. Taekwondo, 24. Tennis, 25. Triathlon, 26. Volleyball (including beach volleyball), 27. Weightlifting, 28. Wrestling.

THE SPORTS UNDER THE SEA GAMES PROGRAMME

Category I: 1. Aquatics (including swimming, water polo, diving and synchronised swimming), 2. Athletics.

Category II (sports in the Olympics and Asian Games, at least 14 sports based on relative popularity): 1. Archery, 2. Badminton, 3. Basketball. 4. Billiards and Snooker, 5. Bowling, 6. Boxing, 7. Canoeing, 8. Cycling, 9. Fencing, 10, Football,

11. Golf, 12. Gymnastics, 13. Judo, 14. Karate, 15. Pencak Silat, 16. Rowing, 17. Sepaktakraw, 18. Shooting, 19. Squash,

20. Table Tennis, 21. Taekwondo, 22. Tennis, 23. Volleyball, 24. Weightlifting, 25. Wrestling, 26. Softball, 27. Wushu, 28. Yachting.

Category III (Maximum six sports): 1. Arnis, 2. Baseball, 3. Bodybuilding, 4. Chess, 5. Equestrian, 6. Fin swimming, 7. Handball, 8. Hockey, 9. Lawn Bowls, 10. Modern Pentathlon,

11. Muay Thai, 12. Netball, 13. Petanque, 14. Rugby, 15. Shuttlecock, 16. Soft tennis, 17. Traditional boat race, 18. Water ski.

Note: There are some discrepancy in the SEA Games list. Some Olympic and Asian Games sports that are in Category III should be in Category II. Some sports like Kabbadi (Asian Games sport) and dance sports are not in any of the categories mentioned above.

News Poll

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs

Latest from StarProperty