KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — After much contemplation, the 31st SEA Games scheduled to be held from November 21 to December 2 in Hanoi, has been postponed to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) in a statement said, the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF), which met virtually today, agreed with the postponement after rejecting the proposals twice, previously.

It stated that, a new date will be determined by the SEAGF Council.

"The SEAGF members praised the work done thus far by the Vietnam Organising Committee (VOC), but took note of the current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the South-East Asian region,” the statement added.

According to local media reports last month, VOC wanted to postpone the Hanoi Games to March or June next year due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Vietnam and other South-east Asian countries, which also delayed the hosts’ preparations.

Vietnam, who is set to host the SEA Games for the second time after the 2003 edition, has previously listed 520 events from 40 sports for this year’s Games.

The only time the biennial games has been cancelled since the inaugural edition in 1959, was in 1963, when Cambodia could not host the multi-sport games due to political instability.

The latest decision will see an influx of multi-sport events in the 2022 calendar, including the Beijing Winter Olympics from February 4-20, Birmingham Commonwealth Games (July 28-August 8) and Hangzhou Asian Games (September 10-25).

Previously, Malaysia was among the eight countries, who rejected the proposals to postpone the SEA Games to 2022 due to various reasons. 

Meanwhile, OCM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria who represented Malaysia in the meeting had proposed the 2021 SEA Games be brought forward to end of April or early May next year, as the organiser has yet to find a convincing resolution.

"I proposed to do a voting for the postponement of the 2021 SEA Games, whereby 10 countries supported the motion while one country which was Vietnam abstained…it was indeed an unanimous decision,” he told a virtual press conference today after attending the online meeting with coaches and team managers of Tokyo Olympics.

A total of 30 athletes from 10 sports will compete in Tokyo Olympics, which is slated to be held from July 23-August 8. — Bernama