POC rushes to finalize SEAG events

MANILA, Philippines — The POC is determined to finalize by today the list of events in the 56 sports set for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games on Nov. 30-Dec. 10 next year as the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the participating countries await confirmation on the number of gold medals that will be at stake when the competitions reel off at the New Clark City, Subic, Manila and Tagaytay.

SEA Games Federation executive committee chairman and former POC president Cito Dayrit said yesterday last-minute appeals were still being considered by SEA Games Federation sports and rules committee chairman Tom Carrasco and POC chairman Rep. Bambol Tolentino. “We won’t be able to satisfy everybody but the lobbying can’t go on forever,” said Dayrit. “A deadline of Dec. 15 was agreed for the POC to submit the final list of events as mandated by the SEA Games Federation. There is agreement on the 56 sports but the Federation has left it up to the POC to decide on the events we will stage.”

Over the last few days, foreign technical delegates from International and Asian sports federations have been in town for meetings and venue inspections. POC deputy secretary-general Karen Caballero said 43 of 56 sports were represented. The delegates will produce the technical handbooks stipulating rules and conduct of events for the SEA Games. They arrived last Wednesday and leave today.

“We’ve received many appeals and Chairmen Bambol and Tom are reviewing for further consideration,” said Caballero. “Hopefully, we can decide and finalize by Dec. 15.”

While 56 sports are in the schedule, Dayrit said it’s a work in progress. “For now, we’ve got 56 sports but nine months before the opening, we’ll receive the confirmation of which countries will participate in which sports,” he said. “The rule is at least four countries must participate in each sport for it to be included in the final list. So if any of the 56 approved sports fails to gather at least four countries to participate, it will be dropped.”

Dayrit said it’s the SEA Games policy that a year before the opening, the list of events must be finalized. “Strictly speaking, the deadline was Nov. 30 but we were given an extension up to Dec. 15,” he said. “The Federation gave the POC the prerogative to finalize the events.” 

Based on what was approved by the Federation last month, the Philippines will host 56 sports and 529 events in the coming SEA Games. The 56 sports are athletics and aquatics from Category 1 (compulsory sports), 44 from Category 2 (Olympic and Asian Games sports) and 10 from Category 3 (other sports). Making their SEA Games debut are kiteboarding, wakeboarding, e-sports, underwater hockey, obstacle course racing, kurash, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, modern pentathlon, surfing and skateboarding.

“We’ve cut back on events in some sports and added events in other sports,” said Dayrit. Appeals were reportedly made by at least 15 NSAs. A restriction in the Federation policy is each sport must not exceed five percent of the total gold medals on the line except for aquatics, athletics and shooting. Other stipulations are there must be at least 16 Category 1 and at most 12 Category 3 sports. The Category 2 sport that failed to make it was cricket while left out in Category 3 were bodybuilding, bridge, darts, fin swimming, shuttlecock, shorinji kempo, water skiing, sport climbing and aero sports. 

If the 56 sports are held, the coming SEA Games will set a record for the most sports in the calendar. The previous record was 44 sports staged by Indonesia in 2011. The record for most events is 545, also set by Indonesia in 2011. The record for most participants is 5,282 set by Thailand in 2007. At the last SEA Games in Malaysia in 2017, there were 38 sports, 404 events and 4,709 participants.