First check of SEA Games complex set for April
Photo: The SEA Games main stadium as it looked last month, with construction now about 80 percent complete.
All facilities at the 25th SEA Games sports complex are now more than 80 percent complete, site manager Kiengkham Phoutchanhthavongsa said yesterday.
“We are confident that construction of all venues at the site will be finished by the end of March. We are now putting the finishing touches to the facilities at each venue, installing furniture and building roads around the complex,” he said.
“When construction is finished, there will be three months of checks of the facilities at all venues in the complex to make sure everything is functioning properly. The schedule of tests runs from April to June, after which we will hand over the complex to the Lao SEA Games Organising Committee.”
The 125-hectare sports complex is located in Dongsanghine village, Xaythany district, Vientiane , and houses the main stadium with a seating capacity of 20,000, which will be used for the football and track and field events and for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Other venues at the site comprise two indoor stadiums, each with a seating capacity of 3,000, an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts, and a shooting range.
Construction began on October 28, 2007, under a contract with the China Yunnan Construction Engineering Group Corporation. The cost of construction is more than US$80 million and has been arranged through a joint cooperation project between the Lao government and the China Development Bank.
The upgrading of other facilities, including indoor and football stadiums to be used for competition and training, is also in progress.
Meanwhile, work has finished on a new sports training centre on an 11-hectare site in Sikeud village, Naxaithong district.
The centre cost more than 35 billion kip (US$4 million) to build, financed by grant aid from the government of Vietnam . An opening ceremony will be held on January 18.
The centre comprises an office, sleeping quarters for athletes, a running track and playing field, a football pitch, a gymnasium and other facilities for sporting events. Up to 200 athletes will be able to train there every day.
Construction is also in progress on the athletes' village, which is located on a 42,000sqm site at the Dongdok campus, National University of Laos. It is scheduled for completion in August.
The official venue for the launch of the countdown to the 25th SEA Games will be Chao-anouvong stadium in Anou village of Chanthbouly district, according to the Lao National Sports Committee (LNSC).
The LNSC's publication ‘Sports Daily News' yesterday reported the ceremony was being organised by the Lao SEA Games Organising Committee (LAOSOC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Vientiane Administration Office.
The countdown ceremony will be held on December 31 and will be attended by high-ranking government officials, as well as being open to the public.
The ceremony will commence at 6.30 pm and run until 1am on January 1, 2009. Attendees will not only be able to enjoy the New Year celebrations and the launch of the countdown to the 2009 SEA Games, but also a show from Miss SEA Games contestants, performances by various artists, and a dazzling fireworks display.
The event will also feature the selection of the final 11 Miss SEA Games ambassadors who will lead athletes of each country into the stadium during the opening and closing ceremonies of the games.
A countdown clock to be placed at the Talat Sao Shopping Mall is currently being prepared, according to the games' major sponsor Lao Brewery Company.
Last month the SEA Games Federation approved 390 events in 25 sports for the games which will run from December 9 to 18 in Vientiane .
The games will involve athletes from the 11 nations of Laos , Vietnam , Cambodia , Brunei , Thailand , Malaysia , Indonesia , Myanmar , Philippines , Singapore , and Timor Leste, which will be making its SEA Games debut.
The games aim to promote friendship, solidarity and understanding between countries in the region, while promoting sport and providing an opportunity for athletes to compete in order to improve their performances at the Asian Games and Olympic Games.
By Sisay Vilaysack
Officials from the Lao SEA Games Organising Committee and Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sport met on Wednesday in Vientiane to discuss preparations for the 2009 SEA Games. –Photo Sisay
The Lao SEA Games Organising Committee (LAOSOC) met with delegates from the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports in Vientiane on Wednesday to discuss progress on preparations for the 25th SEA Games.
The meeting was chaired by Lao National Sports Committee Vice President, Mr Somphou Phongsa, and the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports' Permanent Secretary Dr Sasithara Pichaichannarong.
The two sides discussed preparations for the games including the compilation of competition technical teams, construction of training and competition facilities, traffic and transport arrangements, volunteer organisers, television broadcasting and accommodation for athletes and officials.
Thai officials reported on the progress of an indoor stadium upgrade which the Thai government is providing 43 billion kip (179 million baht) funding for. The stadium in Beungkhayong village, Sisattanak district of Vientiane will host the shuttlecock and muay events during the games.
The facility is on track for completion in October next year, the meeting was told.
Mr Somphou, on behalf of LAOSOC, thanked the Thai government for its support in upgrading the Beungkhayong indoor stadium and other preparations for the event, which will be held in December 2009.
“In preparing for the games we have also received generous support from other neighbouring countries including Vietnam and China ,” he said.
Last month a meeting of the SEA Games Federation decreed the event would consist of 390 events across the 25 sports of athletics, aquatic sports (swimming, diving and water polo), archery, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, cycling, football, golf, judo, karatedo, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis and soft tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, muay, fin swimming, petanque, shuttlecock and pencak silat.
Competition venues are the national sports complex at Km 16 in Dongsanghin village, Xaythany district; Don Chan Palace; Booyoung and Olympasia indoor stadiums at the National University of Laos; Lao International Trade Exhibition and Convention Centre; Chao-anouvong stadium in Anou village, Chanthabouly district; the Army stadium at Km 5 and the Vientiane Sports Department in Beungkhayong village, Sisattanak district.
JOHOR BARU : Archery, cycling and weightlifting have made it to the list of sports for next year’s 25th edition of the SEA Games, scheduled to be held in Laos from Dec 13-21.
Laos, who are hosting the biennial meet for the first time, did not include the three sports when they came out with the initial list of 22 sports earlier this year.
But in the South-East Asia Games Federation (SEAGF) meeting, which concluded yesterday, Laos have agreed to include the three Olympic sports.
The other sports in the final programme are aquatics (swimming and diving), athletics, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, football, golf, judo, karate, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo, muay thai, petanque, silat, fin swimming, shuttlecock kicking, volleyball (including beach volleyball), wrestling and wushu.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) vice-president Datuk W.Y. Chin, who attended the meeting in Laos, confirmed that the three sports would be contested in next year’s SEA Games.
However, there will be only road cycling competition as Laos do not have the funds to build a velodrome for the track disciplines.
“They have agreed on 25 sports and a total of 398 events altogether,” he said from Laos yesterday.
“However, the Philippines have appealed for basketball to be included and even offered to finance the expenses. However, Laos mentioned that they do not have a basketball arena with wooden flooring.”
Chin added that a decision should be made before the year is over.
Laos have also decided to host all the 25 sports in their capital Vientiane.
The inclusion of the three Olympic sports is certainly good news for Malaysia, who have strong medal chances especially in archery.
In the Korat SEA Games last year, Malaysia had a medal haul of 68-52-95 to finish second overall behind hosts Thailand.
from:http://www.sportsmalaysia.net/2008/11/15/laos-sea-games-2009-three-new-sports/
The Southeast Asian Games owes its origins to the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP Games. On May 22, 1958, delegates from the countries in Southeast Asian peninsula attending the 3rd Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan had a meeting and agreed to establish a sport organization. The SEAP Games was conceptualized by Laung Sukhumnaipradit, then Vice-President of the Thailand Olympic Committee. The proposed rationale was that a regional sports event will help promote cooperation, understanding and relations among countries in the Southeast Asian region.
Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), Malaya (now Malaysia), Laos, South Vietnam and Cambodia (with Singapore included thereafter) were the founding members. These countries agreed to hold the Games biannually. The SEAP Games Federation Committee was formed.
The first SEAP Games were held in Bangkok from 12-17 December, 1959 comprising more than 527 athletes and officials from Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, South Vietnam and Laos participating in 12 sports.
At the 8th SEAP Games in 1975, the SEAP Federation considered the inclusion of Indonesia and the Philippines.The two countries were formally admitted in 1977, the same year when SEAP Federation changed their name to Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF), and the games were known as the Southeast Asian Games. Brunei was admitted at the 10th SEA Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, and East Timor at the 22nd SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The 24th SEA Games held in the Thailand, which started from 6 December and ended on 15 December 2007, hosting the biennial event for the sixth times and it is also the most protested SEA Games ever.The next host for the SEA Games is in Laos.It was that the Laos to host the binneial games for the first time
