THE Olympic Council of Malaysia, the organizer of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, has reinstated judo, fencing and eight athletics events in the biennial meet’s calendar of events.
The decision was made following a meeting last June 19 in Kuala Lumpur.
Reports said that judo and fencing are among the four additional sports reinserted by the OCM for the 2017 SEA Games.
Also reinstated are the eight athletics events which were initially dropped from the athletics calendar after a warning from the Asia Athletics Association.
Last March, Malaysia dropped marathon (men and women), 10,000m, 3,000m (men and women), 3,000m steeplechase, decathlon and heptathlon.
The events were not included since Malaysia did not win any medals in those events in the 2013 Myanmar SEA Games and the 2015 Singapore SEA Games.
Sanctions and boycotts were later called over the decision that excluded the eight events.
Judo and fencing, along with the eight athletics event, will now be among 38 sports events in a list to be submitted by OCM to the SEA Games Federation meeting on July 13 and 14.
The new list is expected to feature 38 sports and 396 events compared to the initial list of 34 sports and 342 events.
The OCM earlier trimmed the 41 sports listed for the SEA Games, which Malaysia will host for the sixth time.
Apart from judo and fencing, events like body building, wrestling, floorball, canoe/kayak, muay thai, wall climbing, tarung derajat (a type of martial art from Indonesia) are being appealed for inclusion.
The 34 sports listed by SGF on Feb. 24 are athletics, aquatics, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, equestrian, football and futsal, golf, gymnastics, hockey, ice hockey, ice skating, karate, lawn bowls, netball, pencak silat, petanque, rugby 7s, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, snooker & billiard, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, volleyball, water skiing, weightlifting and wushu.
Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association chief Philip Ella Juico said he feels relieved that the deleted events in athletes had been restored.