[Tlc] L-sports politics

[justinm at ucr.edu]

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justin

2008-0502 - Manila Standard - Laos scraps basketball

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=sports6_may2_2008

Laos scraps basketball

By Peter Atencio

THE Philippines would not be able to defend its title in the men’s basketball when Laos hosts the 25th Southeast Asian Games next year.

This is because Laos scrapped basketball from the calendar of 22 sports, which organizers have submitted during last week’s Southeast Asian Games Federation Council meeting.

Laos’ scrapping of basketball and other sports reportedly drew heavy criticism from some of the member-countries, which were hoping to include the sports where they were likely to win medals.

Laotian sports officials have earlier indicated that they will only include around 25 sports, in next year’s SEAG, a far cry from the 43 medal sports and two demonstration sports which Thailand included when it hosted the games last December.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., who just came from the meeting last week, said the Philippines is pushing for the inclusion of basketball, billiards, archery, dance sport, rowing, chess, weightlifting, bowling and fencing.

“We have to do a lot of hard work to be competitive here,” said Cojuangco.

Cojuangco stated that archery has drawn a lot of support from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, but they need to work a little harder to get the other sports included.

Organizers in Laos have included sports like shuttlecock in the list. Shuttlecock is a traditional game played by ethnic groups in Asian countries like Vietnam, China, Laos, Cambodia.

Finswimming is also on the list, but weightlifting and snooker, like basketball, were scrapped.

Also making it to the list of 25 sports in the Laos SEAG are aquatics (swimming and diving), athletics, badminton, boxing, football, golf, judo, karate, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, wushu, muay, petanque, pencak silat and traditional boat race.

Other countries have also proposed to include cycling, rowing, kabbadi, canoeing, body building, hockey, kempo and water polo.

The final list is expected to be out by November.
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu