Jakarta - The maiden ASEAN Primary School Sport Olympiad (APSSO) was considered a success with host Indonesia planning to hold the event next year during school holidays to enable more students to participate, said an event organizer.
The organizing committee deputy chairman Dewi Asih Heriyani said Thursday some events would be changed for next year.
"We will certainly pick games that are mostly played by all ASEAN countries‘ primary school students, like badminton, swimming, table tennis and volleyball," said Heriyani, who also works at the National Education Ministry in charge of activities for kindergarten and primary school students.
"With eight of 10 countries participating, this event has been a great success. We will hold the Olympiad next year but it will be during the school holidays after the final examination," she said.
Heriyani said there would be more events next year. "We‘ve discussed with other ASEAN country delegations how many events to be featured but we haven‘t decided yet."
However, bridge would definitely be dropped from the event.
"Most elementary school students from other countries are not familiar with bridge because it is not in their schools‘ curriculum. It‘s pretty different with our country, where bridge has been part of our curriculum," she added.
The Olympiad ended late Thursday with art performances by participants of all eight countries. Students received cups and certificates from Indonesia‘s minister of national education.
Host Indonesia finished in first place with six gold, five silver and four bronze medals from track and field, chess and soccer. Chess players contributed the most medals, winning three gold, three silver and one bronze.
Vietnam finished second with five gold, two silver and two bronze, followed by Singapore with three silver and one bronze, the Philippines with one silver and Malaysia with four bronze.
Brunei Darussalam, Thailand and Myanmar went home empty-handed.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (17 November 2007)
