Arnis, triathlon, skateboarding out of 2021 Vietnam SEA Games

CEBU, Philippines —  Bad news for Pinoy arnisadors, triathletes and skateboarders.

Arnis, triahtlon and skateboard are not in the list of sporting events that will be contested in the 31s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, Vietnam next year.

This was made known the other day after Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino received a letter from host Hanoi disclosing the number of disciplines to be featured in the biennial tournament.

Also not included are obstacle course, jiujitsu, e-sports, sailing, soft tennis, surfing, sambo, wakeboarding, windsurfing, modern pentathlon, baseball, duathlon, rugy, softball, and squash.

These sports were accounted for 58 golds out of the historic 149-gold output that catapulted the Philippines to the overall championship of the 30th SEA Games it hosted last year.

If the list remains, it will be a big blow to Team Phl’s bid for back-to-back SEAG titles.

Sure to be competed in Hanoi are archery, badminton, 3x3 and 5x5 basketball, billiards and snooker, boxing, canoe-kayak, chess, cycling, dancesport, fencing, football and fiutsal, golf, gymnastics, aerobic, handball, judo, karate, muay, pencak silat, petanque, rowing, sepaktakraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, indoor and beach volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, fin swimming, bodybuilding, kurash, kickboxing and vovinam.

Tolentino though told Joey Villar of The Philippine STAR that he would lobby for events where the Filipino athletes have brighter chances of hauling medals.

“We will lobby for those events that we’re strong at but were not there like arnis, triathlon,” said Tolentino. EBV