Courtesy: Bangkok Sports

24TH SEA GAMES

441 medals on offer

TOR CHITTINAND

A total of 441 gold medals from 41 sports will be up for grabs at next year's SEA Games which will be held in Nakhon Ratchasima. The Games will be held between December 6-15, 2007. It was announced yesterday during the SEA Games Executive Committee annual meeting at Ambassador City Jomtien, Pattaya yesterday. The meeting was presided over by Secretary General of the Olympic Committee of Thailand (OCT), Maj Gen Charuek Ariratchakaran.

The 41 sports are: Track & field, aquatics, archery, badminton, basketball, baseball, billiards & snooker, bowling, handball, hockey, boxing, canoeing, rowing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football & futsal, golf, gymnastics, judo, karate-do, rugby, sailing, windsurf, sepak takraw, shooting, softball, table tennis, triathlon, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, dance sport, lawn bowl, Muay Thai, petanque, pencak silat, traditional boat race.

During the meeting, the board also suggested the plan to set up the SEA Games funds to help member nations who have financial inadequacy.

Mr Chaipak Siriwat, vice president of the SEA Executive Committee, also revealed that Laos will be the host of the 25th Games in 2009 and it is the 50th anniversary of the biennial tournament.

Concerning the Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA) suggestion that the SEA Games should be held every four years instead of two years, Mr Chaipak disagreed with the idea. He said: ''For me, to host the tournament every four years will surely affect Asean sports because it will have a big gap in the preparation for the Olympic and Asian Games.''




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