IN A SPAN of a year, the Philippines will participate in two Southeast Asian (SEA) Games — the first one in Hanoi, Vietnam set on May 12 to 23 and the other one in Phnom Penh, Cambodia slated for May 5 to 16.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham Tolentino made the announcement after Cambodia gave its nod in staging the event that will feature 40 sports including centerpiece athletics and medal — rich aquatics in their SEA Games Federation meeting in Seam Reap over the weekend.

“Cambodia is ready to host and they promised an excellent edition of the Games,” said Mr. Tolentino, who was accompanied by several officials among them triathlon’s Tom Carrasco and volleyball chief and POC broadcast committee chair Ramon Suzara.

The Cambodia edition will see the return of arnis and dance sports, which delivered 14 and 10 gold medals, respectively, when the country hosted and topped the 2019 edition of the biennial event.

The two disciplines, however, were scratched out from the Hanoi calendar.

Badminton, basketball (5×5 and 3×3), boxing, billiards, cycling, canoe and rowing (including traditional boat race), chess (Ok Chatrong, ASEAN and Xiangxi), dance sports, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, hockey, judo, karate, Muay, petanque, sailing, sepak takraw, soft tennis, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon (including aquathlon and duathlon), volleyball, wrestling, weightlifting, wushu, body building, esports, floorball, jiu-jitsu, jetski, kickboxing, kun bokator, vovinam, and Korean martial arts were the other sports that got the host’s nod.

It marks the first time Cambodia is hosting the meet.

Of the 11 member nations, only Timor-Leste has yet to host the SEA Games. — Joey Villar

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