His Royal Highness Prince Hj Sufri
Bolkiah (right), the president of
Brunei Darussalam National
Olympic Council, leaving for the
Jakarta meeting on Saturday. The
Prince is also the SEAGF Life
Honorary President.
Picture:Infofoto
Jakarta Games to start on 11/11/2011, 4 cities to be used as venues
Myanmar will welcome the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2013 after an absence of more than 40 years.
The Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council met in Jakarta last week and unanimously agreed to award the Myanmar Olympic Committee the right to host the 27th SEA Games.
According to a Press statement issued by SEAGF yesterday, Myanmar submitted a letter of intent to host the tournament prior to the meeting in the Indonesian capital which will host the 26th edition of the Games next year.
Myanmar proposed to hold 27 sports.
The last time Myanmar hosted the biennial tournament was in 1969 when it was known as Burma. Competing under that name until 1985, the country also organised the Games in 1961.
His Royal Highness Prince Hj Sufri Bolkiah, the president of Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council (BNOC) and SEAGF Life Honorary President, attended the meeting that saw representation by 10 SEAGF Council member countries except Timor Leste.
Hosting the SEA Games for the first time in 1999, there has been talk circulating in Brunei that the Games might return to the Sultanate in 2015.
However, a BNOC source said that the issue was not discussed in Jakarta.
"Brunei did not make a bid or submit a letter of intent," stated the official.
Also high on the agenda in Jakarta was the date of the 2011 SEA Games.
The President of SEAGF Council, Indonesia has confirmed that the 26th SEA Games will be held on 11/11/2011 (Nov 11, 2011).
Indonesia has proposed four cities as the Games' venues; Jakarta (main city), Bandung (West Java), Semarang (Central Java) and Palembang (South Sumatra).
Though the cities are confirmed, the sports are yet to be finalised.
The SEAGF Sports and Rules Committee proposed three categories of sports to be competed next year.
As expected, athletics and swimming including diving and water polo were named as Category 1 (compulsory) sports.
The sports in Category 2 (sports in Olympic Games and Asian Games) are: archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards and snooker, bowling, boxing, canoeing and kayak, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football and futsal, gymnastic, judo, karate-do, rowing, sailing, sepak takraw, softball, soft tennis, shooting, taekwondo, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
Chess, fin swimming, kempo, pencak silat, traditional boat race and waterskiing were names in Category 3 (other sports).
Other sports being proposed and still under consideration are bridge, paragliding, roller skate and wall climbing.
During its meeting earlier on Sunday, the SEAGF Sports and Rules Committee also proposed seven additional sports to be competed at the 2011 SEA Games.
The sports are arnis, hockey, muay thai, netball, petanque, squash and vovinam.
The SEAGF Council agreed to accept petanque and vovinam in the proposed category and cricket as a demonstration sport.
The Sports and Rules committee will decide on the sports listed above during its next meeting.
The council also agreed to start operating the SEAGF office which is based in Bangkok.
The office was officially launched by HE Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the President of Olympic Council of Asia on Nov 11, last year.
The Council also unanimously agreed to appoint Maj Gen Charouck Ariraachakaran from Thailand as head of the office for a period of four years.
The Council then witnessed the handover of SEAGF Presidency from Phouthong Seng Akom of Lao People Democratic Republic to Rita Subowo from the Indonesia Olympic Committee. Laos hosted the 2009 SEA Games in Vientiane from Dec 9-18.
Courtesy from Brunei Times
