Laos to host SEA Games

Maintaining the sports theme, I thought I'd quickly mention the Southeast Asian Games which are due to be played in Laos in December this year. That's if Laos manage to complete the building of the various arenas, including their new national stadium, some 20kms outside Vientiane, which is still under construction. Laos has already come in for criticism for reducing the number of sports down from 40-odd to 26 and leaving out some of the most obvious Olympic sports like gymnastics, hockey and sailing. What they have included is football, of course, which will be the second main competition for Cambodia this year after the current AFC Challenge Cup qualifying games are completed. Laos have also included a couple of sports that might be new to you, but are typically asian in nature, foot shuttlecock (or jianzi, dacau or tot-sey) which is both a team game and an artistic display, and kick volleyball (or sepak-takraw), which is played with a rattan ball. If you haven't seen the former, get along to Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh any early evening and watch the guys there who are masters at the artistic display version. Eleven nations will compete in the 25th SEA Games in Laos and are as follows: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.