KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Karate Federation's (Makaf) hopes of repeating their eight gold feat at the 2007 Korat SEA Games has been dealt a major blow by the SEA Games Federation's (SGF) decision to limit the number of events and athletes for the Laos SEA Games.
Makaf secretary general Clement Soo said karate which normally offers 19 gold medals for Kumite and Kata individual and team events, has been reduced to 15 events while each country has been restricted to send on 10 exponents.
"In Laos, the Kumite events and the Kata team events have been dropped and that will certainly affect our medal hopes," said Soo when contacted here today.
In Korat, karate contributed eight gold medals, the second highest by an individual sport towards the Malaysian contingent's overall medal tally, while swimming was tops with 14.
Soo said in Korat, men's events offered 11 gold medals while eight was on offer for women's events, bringing the total to 19.
He said Laos may only offer eight (gold) in the men's and seven in the women's events.
"With the new development, we have yet to set the actual target but due to the limited events, it could be just four," he said.
Meanwhile, Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi confirmed that the SGF meeting held in November had decided to limit the number of events and athletes in a number of sports, to give all participating countries an event chance.
"The move is aimed at preventing any one country from monopolising a particular sport," he said.
He added that SGF's decision was based on a request made by the host country.
-- BERNAMA
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