KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — The 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games closing ceremony would be on Aug 31 in conjunction with the nation’s 60th Independence Day.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran Tunku Ja’afar said the executive board meeting yesterday had finalised the new dates for the Games, which would be from Aug 19-31.
“We wanted Sept 16-30 but those days have been taken by the Asian Indoors and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan,” said Tunku Imran.
“Furthermore Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin requested the closing ceremony to coincide with Merdeka and the new dates are perfect.”
As of now, there would only be 39 sports in the Games programme — athletics, aquatics, weightlifting, badminton, cycling, bodybuilding, netball, basketball, billiards and snooker, football, volleyball, equestrian, gymnastics, golf, ice hockey, hockey, karate, cricket, fencing, lawn bowls, ice skating, archery, shooting, sailing, pencak silat, petanque, table tennis, polo, rugby, sepaktakraw, water-skiing, squash, taekwondo, tennis, bowling, boxing, triathlon, wushu and judo.
“Our target is to top the medal tally so we chose sports we are good at,” he said.
Tunku Imran had earlier said he was confident Malaysia could win more than the 111 gold medals earned at the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Games.
Besides the 111 golds, Malaysia also won 75 silvers and 85 bronze medals the last time they hosted the biennial Games.
