Bodybuilders up in arms after a snub
[BODYBUILDING] More than 40 macho athletes gathered at the Olympic Committee of Thailand (OCT) offices yesterday to lay a wreath in protest at the decision to exclude bodybuilding from the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand.
Dressed in black to mourn the exclusion of their sport, the bodybuilders, led by 2005 world champion Sitthi Charoenrith, submitted a statement asking the OCT to reconsider including bodybuilding in the next SEA Games. The SEA Games Federation Executive Committee met in Pattaya last week and decided to drop the sport from the 2007 Games. Local bodybuilders carried banners yesterday, saying "What do we have to practise for?" and laid a black wreath with a sign on it saying "For the SEA Games Federation Executive Committee". The meeting in Pattaya decided not to add bodybuilding into the 2007 competition, citing a lack of transparency in judging. "Other sports like taekwando are also judged by the eye, but why is it [taekwondo] in the Games and not bodybuilding? This is pathetic because we are the hosts and we can win medals from bodybuilding," said an angry Sitthi, who won his world title in the 80kg division in Shanghai last year. At last year's SEA Games in the Philippines, the Thai Bodybuilding Association won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. The sport will also be contested in December's Asian Games in Doha, just as it was at the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea. "It's ridiculous that we will not have bodybuilding in the SEA Games, while bigger events like the Asian Games has it. If they include some hopeless sports in the SEA Games, why can't they include our sport, which can yield gold medals," said Sitthi, who claimed the committee dropped the sport because of a conflict with the Asian Body Building and Fitness Federation. Sitthi said Pakkapong Kriangsak, the president of the Thai Bodybuilding Association, had updated the OCT several times on the judging procedures and criteria of the sport, but the OCT still rejected it. Meanwhile, doctor Varin Tansupasiri, a local member of the SEA Games Federation Executive Committee, received the bodybuilder's protest letter yesterday and suggested their association discuss the issue with OCT secretary-general Charouck Arirachakaran on Monday.
Lerpong Amsa-ngiam The Nation
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