KUALA LUMPUR: The national contingent can breathe a sigh of relief as a number of sports favoured by Malaysia have been included for next year's Thailand Sea Games (Dec 9-20).
A total of 50 sports have been included in the finalised list of events, which is substantially more than the 36 sports contested at the Phnom Penh Games last year.
This includes karate, wushu, tenpin bowling, weightlifting and ju-jitsu which had originally been left out of the list of sports for the Thailand Sea Games.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria confirmed that their position in the games is safe.
"Yes they (karate, wushu etc) have been included in the list of 50 sports. This list is final, there will not be any more changes," said Norza today.
Lawn bowls, however, has not made the cut.
Malaysia won four gold medals from karate and two gold from wushu in Phnom Penh. Tenpin bowling, which Malaysia has traditionally been strong in, was not included in Cambodia as they lacked the facilities to host the event.
Malaysia also has high hopes in weightlifting now following Aniq Kasdan's encouraging performances in recent seasons at the world level.
Aquatic sports will offer the most medals among all sports in Thailand with 50 gold up for grabs, which includes four in diving.
Athletics will offer the second most medals at 43 gold followed by canoe and rowing (combined 30), shooting (30), taekwondo (20), extreme sports (20), cycling (17), muay (18), ju-jitsu (18), boxing (17) and gymnastics (16), karate (15), weightlifting (14), wushu (14), pencak silat (13), sailing (13), fencing (12), wrestling (12), judo (12), petanque (11), sepak takraw (11) and triathlon (11).
The other sports that have been included are archery (10), billiards and snooker (10), ice skating (9), chess (8), equestrian (8), badminton (7), table tennis (7), tennis (7), modern pentathlon (6), hockey (6), kabaddi (6), woodball (6), esports (6), tenpin bowling (6), teqball (5), basketball (4), squash (4), cricket (4), football and futsal (4), volleyball (4), baseball and softball (4), golf (4), handball (2), rugby (2), ice hockey (2), floorball (2) and netball (1).