KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) has reduced the number of sports for the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games from 39 to 34.

OCM president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar declined to name the sports that were dropped. He said the 34 events will be announced after the Chinese New Year to give time and a chance for the national sports associations (NSAs) and national Olympic committees (NOC) from the Asean member countries to appeal.

“Obviously not everyone is going to be happy, I am sure there will be a lot of lobbying and people trying to get more events and sports that did not make the cut,” he told reporters after the council’s executive board meeting at Wisma OCM here today. “We are ready to listen to their appeal.

“We will have the Sea Games Federation (SEAGF) council meeting and Malaysia Sea Games organising committee (Masoc) meeting on February 23 and 24 in Kuala Lumpur, where they will oversee the big item for them, the list of sports and events.”

Among the 39 sports listed earlier by the council were squash, canoe, hockey, badminton, karate, ice skating, aquatics, shooting, football, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, volleyball, netball, lawn bowls, water ski, petanque, triathlon, silat, fencing, taekwondo, rugby.

Also listed were ice hockey, bowling, cricket, tennis, judo, golf, wushu, sepak takraw, archery, equestrian, weightlifting, cycling, table tennis, snooker billiards, athletics, sailing and gymnastics.

Tunku Imran said the NSAs and NOC still had a chance to appeal for the inclusion of sports or events to Masoc until July, before the list is finalised.

“We have to announce the final list 12 months before the opening ceremony, which is July. We have to balance up having the sport and where we will end up in the table.

“Besides winning gold medals, other criteria we will look into are the location of the venue and the cost, with the global economic recession coming upon us,” he said.

Malaysia organised the Sea Games for the first time in 1965, which at that time was known as the South East Asia Peninsula Games (Seap Games) and in 1971, 1977, 1989 and 2001.

Malaysia’s best achievement was in 2001 when the national contingent emerged champions after winning 111 gold, 75 silver and 85 bronze medals while in Singapore last year Malaysia finished fourth with 62 gold, 58 silver and 66 bronze medals. — Bernama