KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will grant exceptions to certain sports to list senior athletes under Category B for the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from May 5-17.

OCM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said among the sports that could be allowed to bring along seniors in this category were athletics, water polo, volleyball, traditional boat-racing as well as snooker and billiards.

He said the services of these seniors were indeed necessary to guide junior athletes for the biennial games.

“In sports like snooker and billiards, there are athletes aged 50 and above because you must understand that these sports do start slowly as underage individuals cannot enter certain places (like snooker centres).

“For athletics, if there is one senior alongside three juniors in the 4x100m or 4x400m event, we can consider it,” he said at a press conference after the 204th OCM Executive Council meeting here today.

Last October, the OCM Selection Committee decided that only athletes aged 23 and under can represent the country under Category B for the SEA Games, thus ruling out seniors who do not qualify under Category A, which is a top-three ranking in South-east Asia.

For international games, all participation costs for Category A athletes are paid for by OCM, while costs for Category B are borne by the athletes or sports associations involved but are reimbursed if they win a medal.

Meanwhile, Mohamad Norza said 799 athletes and officials were included in the initial list to represent the country at the 2023 SEA Games.

He said they comprised 367 athletes and 143 officials under Category A and 227 athletes and 62 officials under Category B.

He also said the list of athletes and officials for eight non-affiliated associations, namely fin swimming, xiangqi chess, e-sports, jetski, jiujitsu, kickboxing, obstacle race and petanque, would be finalised before the March 5 deadline for submitting names of athletes for the games.

Meanwhile, he said track and field was expected to form the largest group with 33 athletes qualified under Category A and 31 under Category B to groom a competent squad for the 2025 SEA Games in Bangkok and 2027 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

In other developments, Mohamad Norza announced that former national bowling queen Datuk Shalin Zulkifli and Manila SEA Games 2005 women’s singles squash champion Sharon Wee had been appointed deputy chefs de mission for the games.

He was optimistic that the two former stars would not only assist chef de mission Datuk Mohd Nasir Ali but also use their experience to inspire Malaysians to excel in Cambodia.

He added that the status of the Malaysian Petanque Federation as an associate member had been revoked based on Article 24.2 (a) of the OCM Constitution which provides that any member’s membership will be terminated if it is not registered under the Sports Development Act 1992, Societies Act 1996 and Companies Act 1965.

“The meeting also approved the OCM executive board’s proposal to list two new members, namely the Baseball Federation of Malaysia (BFM) and the Malaysian Boules Sports Federation (MBSF), as associate members of OCM,” he said. — Bernama