MANILA, Philippines – This time there will be no more appeals after the Laos Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee decided to dump basketball in the 25th edition of the biennial meet.
Efforts made by Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) officials to convince the Laos SEAG organizers to include basketball in the list of events to be played in December were futile after Laos Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad denied, with finality, the Philippines’ request to include basketball in the 2009 SEAG program.
Lengsavad, who is also the chairman of the Laos SEAG Organizing Committee, met with special adviser to the POC president Go Teng Kok and POC treasurer Julian Camacho Thursday in Laos.
Lengsavad was joined by the president of the Laos Basketball Association where they informed the Filipino officials they can’t host basketball due to lack of facility and technical expertise to.
“It’s final; basketball will not be included in the Laos SEA Games. We’re really upset after we talked with their Deputy Prime Minister and their NOC for basketball. We have done our best but it was not enough. Sorry to our 90 million Filipino people," said Camacho in a text message to GMANews.TV.
Go and Camacho flew to Laos Tuesday confident they can get Laos’ approval after getting support from key Filipino officials who are reportedly close to Lengsavad.
This will be the second time in the last three SEA Games where basketball, which is a sure gold for the country in men’s basketball, will not be played. The first time was in 2005 when the Philippines hosted the Games since the country was suspended by FIBA due to leadership disputes.
POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. said he was unhappy with the result but respected Laos’ as host. Laos has the right to choose which events should be played in the Games set from December 13 to 21.
“The host has the privilege to choose the games they wanted to host. These are things we have to understand," said Cojuangco.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) was also saddened by the development but at the same time asked the athletes to use the decision as a motivation as they fight for gold medals in the 25th SEA Games.
“The SBP did everything reasonably possible and fairly necessary to support the POC’s initiatives to push for basketball’s inclusion. The SBP is also confident the Philippine campaign in Laos will not be greatly affected by the development albeit the loss of a certain medal in basketball," said SBP executive director Noli Eala.
The Laos Organizing Committee earlier said that they only plan to host 25 sports discipline in the SEA Games’ 25th edition.
Sports disciplines to be played are athletics, aquatics (swimming, diving and water polo), archery, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, cycling, football, golf, judo, karate, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, muay, petanque, pencak silat, fin swimming and shuttle ****. – GMANews.TV
