NAKHON RATCHASIMA (Thailand), Dec 15: The Southeast Asian Games’ drift away from Olympic sports will continue at the next event in 2009, with organizers set to jettison many such disciplines as part of a severe cutback in the breadth of competition.

Among the Olympic sports present at the current Games that will be absent from competition in the Laos capital Vientiane in December 2009 are cycling, basketball, gymnastics, hockey, rowing and weightlifting.

Yet the event will retain the likes of tenpin bowling, petanque, billiards, ‘dragon’ boat racing, sepak takraw, the more obscure martial arts of wushu, Muay Thai and pencak silat, and will resume the sport of juggling a shuttlecock with feet. There will be 25 disciplines compared to the 43 in Nakhon Ratchasima.

The cutback is partly due to being in a landlocked country _ there will be no sailing, windsurfing or triathlon _ and partly due to lack of facilities in Vientiane.

There had also been a determination to reduce the breadth of the SEA Games, with many events in the current Games having small fields and weak competition.

The 24th SEA Games ended on Saturday, with Thailand predictably topping the table with 183 gold medals.

It was the fourth straight Games where the host nation had finished atop the standings, raising further questions about the judging.

The lingering suspicion about home advantage erupted here in boxing, where the Philippines forfeited six men’s gold medal bouts in a protest at judging in the women’s finals where its boxers lost out to Thai opponents in all five bouts that were decided on points.

The Philippines’ protest spared its fighters having to compete with a world-class array of Thai boxers, and would have had more weight if the Philippines had voiced similar concerns when it was seen to benefit from the judging at the Manila event in 2005.The protest robbed the Games of a rare display of world-competitive athletes in gold medal competition. The likes of Manus Boonjamnong and his brother Non, Amnat Ruenroeng, Somjit Jongjohor, Pichai Sayota and Suriya Prasathinphimai will all be genuine gold threats at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

Aside from boxing, the only other Olympic gold prospects on display were in badminton and shooting, with the latter having been held before the Games started to avoid a clash with an Asian championship.

In badminton, Indonesia swept all seven gold medals on offer, led by reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in men’s singles. However Indonesia was not put fully to the test, as Malaysia’s male and female aces sat out the Games and both nations will be hard pressed to match the powerhouse of China in Beijing.

At the track, Indonesia’s Suryo Agung Wibowo won the 100 and 200 meters double for men, as did Vietnam’s Vu Thi Huong for women. Similarly, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters double was won by Thailand’s Boonthung Srisung for men and Indonesia’s Triyaningsih in the women’s. Vietnam monopolized the 800 and 1,500 meter events, with Nguyen Dinh Cuong doing the men’s double and Hang Truong Thanh the women’s.

Arguably the most meritorious performance was by Thailand’s Beijing-bound Wassana Winatho, who not only won the heptathlon but also the women’s 400 meters hurdle, and took gold in the 4x400 meter relay.

At the pool, Thailand’s Natthanan Jankrajang won four golds in women’s events, as did Singapore’s Chinese import Tao Li.

There were a slew of SEA Games records in both athletics and swimming, but Southeast Asian athletes remain some way off world competitive times in those disciplines.—AP