SEA Games events back to 529

MANILA, Philippines — Five sports reflected changes in their list of events as the Southeast Asian Games Federation continued to tweak the agenda of competitions in the 30th edition of the 11-nation conclave that the Philippines will host on Nov. 30-Dec. 10.

Last November, the Federation approved a lineup of 529 events in 56 sports, making the coming Games the biggest ever in terms of calendar. Indonesia holds the record for staging the most sports, 44, in 2011 and the Philippines will reset the mark this year. But Indonesia will keep the record for most events, 545, set in 2011. The record for most participants is 5,282 registered by Thailand in 2007.

The POC, given the mandate by the Federation to finalize the list of competitions, later trimmed the events to 523. Taking cutbacks were underwater hockey, sambo, obstacle course racing, kurash, weightlifting, surfing, squash and modern pentathlon while aquatics, badminton, bowling, canoe/kayak, cycling, gymnastics, tennis, kickboxing and wakeboarding had additions. 

In the latest list, the events were bumped back up to 529 while retaining 56 sports. Baseball/softball and polo went down by one each. Men’s softball was scratched while polo adjusted from three events to two – mixed goals (0-2) and (4-6). Athletics showed an increase from 42 to 48 with the addition of 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters for men and women, 10-kilometer walk for women and 20-kilometer walk for men. Aquatics added water polo for women and increased from 44 to 45. 

Sailing/windsurfing did some juggling and in the end, showed a net increase of only one event. Laser radial and fleet racing were struck out of the men’s division to make way for women’s laser radial and two mixed events – keelboat fleet racing and keelboat match racing.

The 56 sports are classified under Category 1 (compulsory sports), Category 2 (Olympic and Asian Games sports) and Category 3 (other sports). The compulsory sports are athletics and aquatics. There are 42 Category 2 sports (the rule is at least 16) and 12 Category 3 sports (the rule is a limit of 12). The Category 3 sports are arnis, e-sports, floorball, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, kurash, lawn bowls/petanque, netball, obstacle sports, sambo, underwater hockey and wakeboarding. In the SEA Games, a host country must stage at least 22 sports. Another rule is no sport may exceed five percent of the total gold medals at stake except for aquatics, athletics and shooting. Aquatics’ share is 9.1 percent, athletics 8.5 percent and shooting 2.65 percent. Of the sports excluded from the exception list, taekwondo is the closest to five percent with 4.16 percent.

Sports with at least 10 events are athletics (48), aquatics (45), archery (10), billiard sports (10), boxing (13), canoe/kayak/traditional boat race (12), cycling (13), dancesport (14), fencing (12), gymnastics (19), judo (16), karatedo (13), sailing/windsurfing (12), shooting (14), taekwondo (22), weightlifting (10), wrestling (14), wushu (16), arnis (20), jiu-jitsu (11), kurash (10) and lawn bowls/petanque (10).  Tasked to confirm the list of events are POC chairman Rep. Bambol Tolentino, SEAG Federation executive committee chairman and former POC president Cito Dayrit and SEAG Federation sports and rules committee chairman Tom Carrasco.