NAKHON RATCHASIMA—Laos will not include three Olympic sports—gymnastics, cycling and basketball—when it hosts the Southeast Asian Games for the first time in 2009.

Officials from Laos said they do not have the adequate facilities to host these three events, which are considered compulsory in any major international multisport competition. The 2009 Games will be held in the capital Vientiane.

“There will no gymnastics and basketball [and cycling] during the 25th SEA Games,” Laos team commissioner Somphu Pangsa said. “There are no huge venues for indoor sports like these.”

As for cycling, Laos also expressed it could not stage the sport not only because it does not have a velodrome for track events, but because it doesn’t have the technical officials to run the competitions.

But officials of the Asean Cycling Assocaition (ACA) who met here Friday, tasked themselves and the Thailand and Vietnam federations to help Laos organize the cycling competitions.

The ACA intends to visit Laos as early as January to start training Laotians in the organization and conduct of cycling races. Road and mountain bike could possibly be staged, but not track because it would be expensive to build a velodrome.

Pangsa said Laos intended to cut the number of sports from 43 in the current Games to 25, but would not reveal which other sports were to be excluded.

Core sports such as athletics, swimming and soccer must be retained.

Thailand officials have thrown gymnastics and basketball a lifeline, saying they are prepared to concurrently host gymnastics in cities neighboring the Laos border, such as Nongkhai, Ubon Ratchathani or Udon Thani.

“We were informed by the Southeast Asian Gymnastics Confederation that there will be no gymnastics in the 25th SEA Games in Laos, so the president of the Thailand Gymnastics Association is currently negotiating with the Laos sport minister to host the gymnastics on Thai soil at the same time as the Games in Laos, and the winner will receive the SEA Games medal like it was being played in Laos,” Sarayuth Phanasak, secretary of Thailand’s Gymnastic Association, said.

“We have seen that SEA Games is the chance for developing gymnastic for athletes in Southeast Asian nations, and if we don’t have these kind of sports the gymnasts in this region will lose their chance to develop, so that’s why we’re pushing hard to have this.”

BELOW THE BELT

NAKHON RATCHASIMA—Cyclist Baby Marites Bitbit goes home with a gold medal around her neck, and so will ageless judoka John Baylon, taekwondo jin Tshomlee Go and the seemingly unbeatable Blu Boys and Blu Girls as the Philippines modestly got back in the thick of things in the Southeast Asian Games Thursday.

It’s return of the king as RP 5 cops gold in men’s basketball

NAKHON RATCHASIMA—The Philippines is now officially back as king of basketball in the Southeast Asian Games.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA—The best finish the country is hoping is fourth. The worst it could get for Team Philippines in the 24th Southeast Asian Games is sixth.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA—Laos will not include three Olympic sports—gymnastics, cycling and basketball—when it hosts the Southeast Asian Games for the first time in 2009.

Men, lady golfers settle for silver, so does Anya

The men’s team pushed themselves to the limit on the final day but a 19-point deficit was too big to overcome as Team Philippines salvaged a silver medal in team play at the close of the golf competitions in the 24th Southeast Asian Games held at the Bonanza Golf and Country Club.

Promise of a major facelift

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is readying for a massive overhaul of the country’s sports program in light of a Southeast Asian Games showing that is way below expectations.

Tough Turf: Equality in giving prize-money

IT is very disappointing to see our countrymen fighting for gold and glory in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and then being waylaid by the onslaught of their rivals.