Makaf Slam OCM For Agreeing To Limit Participation At Laos Sea Games

By Zulhilmi Supaat

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Karate Federation (Makaf) Wednesday took to task the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) for not acting in the interest of the country by agreeing to SEA Games Federation's decision to limit participation in several sports including karate at the Laos SEA Games next year.

Makaf secretary-general Clement Soo said the OCM representative who attended the SGF meeting in Bangkok two weeks ago, should have been aware that by agreeing to it, it would jeopardise Malaysia's chances of collecting more medals in karate.

"Karate is among the main contributors of medals for Malaysia in the history of the SEA Games. Now, with the SGF limiting the number of participants for the event, it will only mean our medal haul will be reduced," he told Bernama Wednesday.

For the record, at the Korat SEA Games last year karate provided eight gold, three silver and five bronze, 2005 in Manila (4,7,4), 2003 in Vietnam (2,7,8), 2001 in Kuala Lumpur (9,3,6) and 1999 in Brunei (7,5,4).

At the meeting, the SGF agreed to limit participation in 12 events - karate, boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling, fin swimming, silat, sepaktakraw, muay thai, wushu, shuttle-cock kicking and weightlifting.

For karate which offers an overall of 19 golds in Laos, each country is only allowed to compete in six out of nine events for men and four out of six for women.

Clement said Makaf would be writing to the OCM and National Sports Council (NSC) to protest the development.

He further claimed that Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines were also likely to protest this development as they too normally sent full contingents for karate.

-- BERNAMA