Basketball, softball return in SEA Games

Basketball and softball, two sports where the Philippines are deemed strong, have been included in the list of 40 events initially approved by the Southeast Asian Games Federation for next year’s 26th biennial conclave in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The two sports were scrapped in the previous edition in the Vientiane, Laos, which only had a total of 25 events.





Athletics president Go Teng Kok, who represented the Philippine Olympic Committee in the SEA Games Federation meeting held May 29 in Jakarta, said the actual number of events should have been 42 had football and lawn tennis were considered as separate sports.
“But futsal was placed under football and soft tennis under lawn tennis, thus reducing the number to 40,” said Go during the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.
As in the past Games, the events have been bracketed into three with athletics and swimming – the compulsory events – falling in Category I.
Other sports played in the Olympic Games and Asian Games are under Category II while events not played in the Olympics and Asiad and those indigenous events but played in several countries in the region are in Category III.
Bodybuilding, which was listed under Category III, was also approved for inclusion although on condition that all the cases be brought to the Federation for settlement because of rampant drug abuses.
For the first time in the Games history, athletics and aquatics will not be played in the same venue. Running, throwing and jumping events will be held in Palembang, while swimming and diving will be contested in Bandung.