Datuk Nazifuddin Najib, The Secretary General of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), confirmed that karate and wushu were among the sports not included in this edition’s initial list.
Nazifudin said the matter was decided in the SEA Sports Federation (SEAGF) Meeting involving 11 countries last Saturday.
SEA Games 2025 in Thailand will not hold 6 important sports Weightlifting, Karate, Wushu, Bowling, Body Builder and Cricket. but however, each country is given until the end of next month to make an appeal on the matter.
“What is listed are approximately 40 types of sports, where the main sports that are not on the list are wushu, karate, field bowling and weightlifting,” Secretary of MASOC said.
“Besides, we’ve already received appeals from body builders.”
“So, we will discuss our sports association to make an appeal before the final list will be released by the host, Thailand at the end of this year.”
“The national contingent faced a dark moment in the Cambodian SEA Games last year when they failed to reach the target of 40 gold medals.
“Indeed we see that there are many opportunities for us to win medals in the sport that is not contested.”
“But it is still not the final list by Thailand, and we are indeed discussing adding more sports such as weightlifting, which is indeed being considered by Thailand, but the issue is doping, and they are also looking to overcome it,” he added.
In the SEA Games 2023, in Cambodia, the Malaysia contingent won 34 gold medals and ended the challenge in seventh place overall. It was Malaysia’s worst performance at the SEA Games stage and the lowest gold collection in 20 years since the Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2003.
Credit Photo : Utusan