KUALA LUMPUR, Several sports previously excluded from the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand, but have the potential to earn medals for Malaysia, are set to be reinstated.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib said that among these sports are tenpin bowling, weightlifting, wushu, karate, jujitsu and kabaddi.
‘We held a meeting with the organisers and the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) on Sept 5 to submit an appeal for several sports that were not included in the initial list for the SEA Games in Thailand.
‘Ninety per cent of the appeals made by OCM received positive response from the hosts as they intend to feature 50 sports encompassing 550 events,’ he said when contacted by Bernama today.
In June, OCM announced that they would appeal to SEAGF to include several potential medal-winning sports for Malaysia in this prestigious regional event after Thailand suggested holding 40 sports to be contested in Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla.
At that time, karate, wushu, jujit
su, lawn bowls and weightlifting – all considered “gold mines’ for Malaysia – were removed from the list for the 33rd SEA Games from Dec 9-20, 2025.
Meanwhile, Mohd Nazifuddin announced that they are working on submitting an appeal for lawn bowls to be included in the 33rd edition of the Games, with a decision set to be made at a meeting on Oct 5.
‘Lawn bowls is one of the sports requested by the National Sports Council (MSN) to be included in the SEA Games.
‘We are still trying to submit appeals for several other sports as well, such as dance sport, paragliding and jetski,’ he said.
Lawn bowls was last contested at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines, where the national team bagged four golds and two bronzes.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
