In a bid to retain the overall crown, Malaysia is set to bat for the inclusion of its favorite sports when members of the Southeast Asian Games Federation council meet again this November.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said they will push for the inclusion of pencak silat, petanque, table tennis, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, ice hockey, rowing, hockey, netball and cricket in the 30th SEA games set in Clark from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10 next year.

The 10 sports greatly contributed to the 145-gold medal finish of the Malaysians in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games last year.

They collected 10 gold medals in pencak silat, seven from lawn bowls, three from hockey, two from petanque and one apiece from rugby 7s and netball.

They drew a pair of bronze medals from table tennis.

But in a meeting in Manila last month, the powerful council failed to include these sports in the 30 sports that will be played in the Philippines’ first hosting in 19 years.

Included in the preliminary list of sports to be played are mandatory sports athletics and aquatics, as well as archery, badminton, basketball, baseball and softball, billiards, tenpin bowling, boxing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, golf, gymnastics, judo and jiujitsu, karate, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, squash, taekwondo, triathlon, weightlifting, wrestling, volleyball, wushu, dancesport and muay.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Victorico Vargas said more sports would be added in the list depending on the appeal of the 10 other member countries.

But this early, Malaysia already floated the sports it wants to include in the roster.

“With regards to the 2019 Manila SEA Games, we have received applications from 10 sports that we are hoping we will put forth an appeal to the SEA Games Federation and we intend to do so during the meeting,” said Norza in a recent report by the New Straight Times.

Also set to make an appeal is Vietnam, which wants to include vovinam.

Nguyen Binh Dinh, deputy chairman of the Southeast Asian Vovinam Federation, said it’s about time for the host country to include this Vietnamese martial art after being delisted in the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur editions of the games.

He said Myanmar already threw its support while Laos, Cambodia and Thailand vowed to back them up so the sport would not completely fade in the prestigious biennial meet.

The Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) had given all members countries only until today to lodge their appeals.

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