OCA chief says wushu, baseball in 2019 Asiad

MANILA, Philippines — Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait Friday said the OCA is likely to approve 39 to 40 sports for the 2019 Asian Games including events where the country stands a fighting chance like baseball, softball and wushu.

The 2019 Games, whose date was moved to a year before the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“It will have Olympic sports and regional ones like kabaddi for the south region, wushu for far east, plus softball, baseball and squash,” said Al-Sabah of the Vietnam Asiad.

Some 400 representatives of the 45 member-nations of OCA met yesterday for the 100th year of the Asian Games—first held here in Manila as the Far Eastern Games in 1913.

The general assembly will be held Saturday.

There will be 38 sports Incheon later this year and wushu will be included as demonstration sport.

Meanwhile, Al-Sabah and Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., announced the formation the Kuwait-Philippines Peace and Development Foundation, which will extend help to survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” by providing them with livelihood.