2009 SEA Games to reduce number of Olympic sports

2009 SEA Games to reduce number of Olympic sports By CHRIS LINES The Associated Press Sunday, December 16, 2007 NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand: The next Southeast Asian Games will reduce the number of Olympic sports.
Cycling, basketball, gymnastics, hockey, rowing and weightlifting are among Olympic sports at the current SEA Games that will be absent in Vientiane, Laos in December 2009.
The games will retain events like tenpin bowling, petanque, billiards, 'dragon' boat racing, sepak takraw, the more obscure martial arts of wushu, Muay Thai and pencak silat, and will resume the sport of juggling a shuttlecock with feet.
There will be 25 disciplines compared to 43 in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The cutback is partly due to the landlocked country - with no sailing, windsurfing or triathlon - and also lack of facilities in Vientiane.
Organizers also wanted to reduce the breadth of the games, with many events currently having small fields and weak competition.
Thailand swept the final day of medals, winning gold in men's, women's and mixed doubles tennis on Saturday. In beach volleyball, Indonesia defeated Thailand in straight sets to take men's gold while Yupa Phokongploy and Kulna Kamoltip edged another Thai pair in the deciding third set to take the women's event.
Thailand topped the table with 183 gold medals, with the games' closing ceremony on Saturday.
It was the fourth straight SEA Games where the host nation had finished top of the standings.
Debate about home advantage reached boiling point here in boxing, where the Philippines forfeited six men's gold medal bouts in a protest at judging in the women's finals - where its boxers lost out to Thai opponents in all five bouts that were decided on points.
The Philippines' protest spared its fighters having to compete with a world-class array of Thai boxers. The Philippines was considered to benefit from the judging at the Manila event in 2005.
The protest robbed the Games of a rare display of world-competitive athletes in gold medal competition. Manus Boonjamnong and his brother Non, Amnat Ruenroeng, Somjit Jongjohor, Pichai Sayota and Suriya Prasathinphimai will all be genuine threats for the Philippines at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Aside from boxing, the only other Olympic gold prospects on display were in shooting and badminton.
Shooting was held before the Games started to avoid a clash with an Asian championship.
In badminton, Indonesia swept all seven gold medals, led by reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in men's singles. However Indonesia was not put fully to the test as Malaysia's top male and female players sat out the Games - and both nations will be hard pressed to match the powerhouse of China in Beijing.
The most popular win was that of the Thai men's under-23 soccer team. Thailand won an eighth straight SEA Games gold by defeating Myanmar 2-0 in the final Friday before a sell-out crowd. However, Thailand had already failed to qualify for Beijing.
On the track, Indonesia's Suryo Agung Wibowo won the 100 and 200 meters double for men, as did Vietnam's Vu Thi Huong for women. Similarly, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters double was won by Thailand's Boonthung Srisung for men and Indonesia's Triyaningsih in the women's. Vietnam monopolized the 800 and 1,500 meter events, with Nguyen Dinh Cuong doing the men's double and Hang Truong Thanh the women's.
Thailand's Beijing-bound Wassana Winatho not only won the heptathlon but also the women's 400 meters hurdle, and took gold in the 4x400 meter relay.
In the pool, Thailand's Natthanan Jankrajang won four golds in women's events, as did Singapore's Chinese-born Tao Li.
FINAL MEDAL STANDINGS AT THE 2007 SOUTHEAST ASIAN GAMES
Thailand 183 123 103 409
Malaysia 68 52 96 216
Vietnam 64 58 82 204
Indonesia 56 64 83 203
Singapore 43 43 41 127
Philippines 41 91 96 228
Myanmar 14 26 47 87
Laos 5 7 32 44
Cambodia 2 5 11 18
Brunei Darrusalam 1 1 4 6