Asian Games: Six non-Olympic sports make the 2014 Incheon Asian Games list

PETALING JAYA: The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have confirmed that squash, bowling, karate and wushu are on the list of eight non-Olympic sports that will be contested in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.

And it was sweet music indeed for Malaysia, who recorded their best-ever showing in the history of the Asiad with a haul of nine gold medals in Guangzhou last month.

Initially, there were fears that bowling would be shifted to the Asian Indoor Games in 2013 as the OCA were keen to streamline the number of non-Olympic sports for the Asiad.

The OCA meeting held on the sidelines of the Asian Beach Games in Muscat over the weekend agreed to let it remain in the Asian Games. But they dropped cue sports and softball.

The OCA gave the thumbs up to the 28 Olympic sports on the programme for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games along with baseball, bowling, cricket, kabbadi, karate, sepak takraw, squash and wushu.

The 17th Asian Games will feature 36 sports, six fewer than in edition in Guangzhou.

The Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) secretary, Sidney Tung, said that they were relieved that the matter had been laid to rest.

“There were rumours that bowling would be taken out of the next Asian Games,” he said.

“The Asiad is the biggest multi-Games participation for us and something our bowlers look forward to. We are happy and we never wanted to be in the Asian Indoor Games.

“Bowling is very popular among Asian countries and South Korea did very well (in the Guangzhou Games) and there was really no reason for us to worry (that it would be dropped from the Incheon Games).”

But there will certainly be disappointment for Malaysia if bowling, squash, karate or wushu were excluded from the 2014 Asiad programme.

The four sports accounted for eight of the nine gold medals won by the Malaysian contingent at the Guangzhou Games.

The only gold medal coming from an Olympic event was from cyclist Azizulhasni Awang in the keirin discipline.