THE Malaysian Karate Federation (Makaf) yesterday took the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to task for not acting in the interest of the country by agreeing to the Sea Games Federation's decision to limit participation in several sports including karate at the Laos Sea Games next year.

Makaf secretary-general Clement Soo said the OCM representative who attended the SGF meeting in Bangkok two weeks ago, should have been aware that by agreeing to it, it would jeopardise Malaysia's chances of collecting more medals.

"Karate is among the main contributors of medals for Malaysia in the history of the Sea Games. Now, with the SGF limiting the number of contestants for the event, it will only mean our medal haul will be reduced," he said yesterday.

In last year's Korat Sea Games, karate provided eight gold, three silver and five bronze, while it was 4, 7, 4 in Manila '05, 2,7,8 in Vietnam '03 and 9,3,6 in Kuala Lumpur '01.

At the meeting, the SGF agreed to limit participation in 12 events -- karate, boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling, fin swimming, silat, sepaktakraw, muay thai, wushu, shuttle-cock kicking and weightlifting.
For karate which offers an overall 19 gold in Laos, each country is only allowed to compete in six out of nine events for men and four out of six for women.

Clement said Makaf would be writing to the OCM and National Sports Council (NSC) to protest the development.

He claimed Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines were also likely to protest this development as they too normally sent full contingents for karate. -- Bernama