Indonesia Hoping to Reset the Bar with 577 Events at SEA Games

Indonesia is scheduled to host the biennial Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, and Jakarta on Nov. 11-20. (SP Photo) 

The nation is set to host the most action-packed Southeast Asian Games in history next year after the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) said it would propose that as many as 577 events from 43 sports be staged.

Indonesia is scheduled to host the biennial Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, and Jakarta on Nov. 11-20.

It aims to finish top of the medal table for the first time since 1997, the year it last hosted the event.

The SEA Games Federation Council will assess KOI’s proposal early next month in Bali before making a decision on which events will be held.

If the council approves all the proposed events, then this year’s Games will eclipse the current record of 490 events in 43 sports set by Jakarta in 1997.

In the 2009 SEA Games in Laos, there were only 372 events from 28 sports.

Rita Subowo, the KOI chairwoman, said most of the events proposed were ones in which Indonesia stood a good chance of winning gold.

“Most of the events we are proposing offer the prospect of a gold medal for us. It is important to help us meet our target to win the overall title,” Rita said on Friday.

“However, we won’t be proposing more than that because we don’t want to inflate our budget.”

Bridge, paragliding and roller-skating, the Vietnamese martial art of vovinam and wall-climbing are also likely to make their SEA Games debut, while cricket will be played as an exhibition event.

To limit the number of athletes, Abdul Rauf, secretary of the Indonesian SEA Games Organizing Committee, said a quota would be imposed on every event. He said the details of the quota would be discussed at a later date.

Rauf added that all but six of the venues in Palembang were ready to be used.

“We’ll talk with the firms constructing those six venues to get them to speed up the work in order to meet the June deadline."