Events set for next SEA Games

HA NOI — Hosts Myanmar confirmed the 32 events to be included at the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at a meeting organised by the SEA Sports Council and the organising board over the weekend.

Among them are some of Viet Nam's strongest disciplines, including gymnastics, wrestling and pencak silat. These events brought 30 medals for Viet Nam at the 26th SEA Games in Laos last year.

The events are divided into three groups. Group one includes track-and-field and water sports (swimming, springboard and water polo). There are 24 events in group two, including taekwondo, rowing, weightlifting, wushu, volleyball and shooting. Group three contains bodybuilding, chess, muay, pencak silat and traditional boat racing.

The council and representatives from regional countries suggested the hosts add seven more events to the Games: fencing, diving, hockey, petanque, soft tennis, Indonesian martial art tarung derajat and Vietnamese martial art vovinam.

Myanmar expressed their hope to put their traditional sport chinlone on show at the 27th SEA Games. Chinlone, with the same rules as sepak takraw, was included on the competition schedule at the 14th Asian Games in South Korea in 2002.

This will be the third time Myanmar has hosted the SEA Games, following 1961 and 1969.

During the meeting, Singapore presented its plans to host the 28th SEA Games in 2015, and Brunei Darussalam asked to host the 30th SEA Games in 2019 instead of the 29th in 2017. Cambodia is bidding to hold the 31th SEA Games in 2021. The Malaysian team said that they were willing to host the 29th Games if no other country vies for the privilege.

The 27th SEA Games are scheduled to take place from December 11-22 in Myanmar next year. — VNS