Weight lifting, cycling, archery and water polo may be added to sporting events included in next year's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos, following a meeting of the event's rules committee which began yesterday in Vientiane.
Members from the national sports committees of participating countries attended the meeting to talk about the rules for sports to be included in the SEA Games in November 2009.
Participants at the three-day meeting will consider imposing restrictions on how many events each country can enter in any one sport. This follows a principle seen at the Olympic Games which had eight taekwondo categories, but countries were only permitted to enter competitors in four categories.
It has also been proposed that a special 4x200m relay event be held just for competitors from Laos , Cambodia , Brunei Darussalam and Timor Leste. Sport in these countries are less developed than in other nations and it is hoped these countries will have more opportunities to win medals if they compete against each other in one event.
Meeting Chairman Kasem Inthara said the committee would learn from the experiences of previous organising committees to ensure the SEA Games was successful and ran smoothly.
Next year's SEA Games will include athletic events, aquatic events and traditional sports.
They are: diving, water polo, swimming, archery, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, cycling, football, golf, judo, karatedo, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis and soft tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu, muay, fin swimming, petanque, shuttle cock and pencak silat.
Source: Vientianetimes
