KUALA LUMPUR: Two martial arts, which are gold mines for the country - wushu and karate will definitely be featured in the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand, according to the Wushu Federation of Malaysia (WFM) president, Datuk Chong Kim Fatt.
Chong, who is also the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) vice president, said this decision was approved by the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) on Sept 5 during an online meeting with OCM.
He said that, so far, 15 events are set to be contested in wushu but the national governing body for the sport aims to apply for additional events to be included in the biennial games.
“Thailand wants to host 15 events but Malaysia is pushing for at least 18 events. The federation will make an application to increase the number of events.
“In addition to wushu, karate will also be contested. I don’t think there are any other sports confirmed yet, but it’s up to Thailand if they want to include additional sports,” he told Bernama today.
In June, OCM announced that it would appeal to SEAGF to include several potential medal sports for Malaysia in the prestigious event, after Thailand proposed that 40 sports be contested across Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla.
At that time, karate and wushu, which are significant contributors of gold medals for the country, along with ju-jitsu, lawn bowls and Olympic Games weightlifting, were removed from the list for the 33rd SEA Games scheduled to take place from Dec 9 to 20.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Karate Federation (MAKAF) president Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad, welcomed the organisers’ approval to include the martial art in the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.
However, he noted that the exact number of karate events to be contested at the prestigious games has yet to be determined.
“This is a positive development for karate. The number of events might be similar to previous SEA Games, but it has not been finalised as the official programme has not been released yet. That’s all I know about karate at the moment,” he said.
At the last SEA Games in Cambodia, karate contributed four gold, two silver and four bronze medals, while wushu brought home two golds, two silvers and six bronzes.
