Sports Events in Asia
Sports Events in Asia are hosted for a range of 'commercial' motives. At the ultimate level of elite sport, however, Asian hosts are gaining a more consistent profile in traditional hegemonic sports such as football and golf.
During this 'advanced' phase of globalization (Maguire, 1999) Asian online betting malaysia are redirecting the flow of the world's major sporting contests.
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) is a pancontinental multi-sport event organised by the Olympic Council of Asia that involves athletes from two continents, representing their National Olympic Committees. AIMAG is the result of a merger between two formerly separate OCA-sanctioned events, the Asian Indoor Games and the Asian Martial Arts Games.
The first edition of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games was held in 2005, and the last one took place in 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The next edition is scheduled to take place in 2023 in Bangkok and Chonburi Province, Thailand.
This year, the e-Sports competition at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games was hosted by Turkmenistan for the first time, with tournaments in Dota 2, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void and Hearthstone being held at five different venues.
HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, president of the Saudi Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and OCA acting president Raja Randhir Singh signed the hosting contract for the 2025 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Riyadh at the Prince Faisal Olympic Complex. HRH also congratulated the people of Riyadh for winning the bid to host the event. He added that thanks to the unlimited support of our leaders, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince, Saudi sports have advanced in a remarkable way globally, including the hosting of several world sporting events.
Asian Beach Games
The Biggest Sports Events in Asia: From the Olympics to the Asian Games are a modern multi-sport event developed by the Olympic Council of Asia that is held every two years. It consists of several sports competing on the sand, including aquathlon (a continuous race that includes swimming and running), volleyball, beach soccer, marathon swimming, beach handball and beach tennis.
The Games were a great success and the winners were Qatar (men's) and Vietnam (women's). Both teams have qualified for the 2023 ANOC World Beach Handball Championship in the Philippines, and Qatar will also be represented at the next IHF Beach Handball World Cup in Germany.
In the women's competition, reigning champions Vietnam won all six matches in a round-robin format, finishing top of Group A with an unassailable lead. They beat Hong Kong, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the process.
Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the Games were a hit and saw four new records set. The host president Yudhoyono praised the athletes for their efforts and said that they were "agents to advance the harmony of civilization". He added that he sees sports as a welcome distraction from a world that is facing economic crisis, conflict, poverty, disease, and war. The slogan for the Games was “See Ya in Sanya!”. The mascot of the Games is a tiger cub named Hodori.
South East Asian Games
While the SEA Games occupy an unofficial position below the Asian and Olympic Games, their status has not limited the commitment or seriousness with which member countries approach the biennial event. Rather, they have developed their own unique regional sporting community based on the administrative structure and norms of the SEAP/SEA Games Federation (SEAGF).
From its inception, the SEAGF was founded on formal rules that set out the basic requirements for membership. The rules established that member NOCs or national sports bodies would have representation on the governing council of the SEAGF and on the various standing committees.
These rules set out the criteria for deciding which sports were to be included on the SEA Games roster, including the requirement that at least one of the chosen sports should be an Olympic sport. These rules also allowed hosts to include other “local sports,” such as the Malaysian sport of sepak takraw, a quintessentially Southeast Asian game of foot volleyball (Pradith 1985: 64-65).
Critics argue that this system discriminates against non-hosting countries by prioritising Olympic sports. They also claim that the inclusion of obscure and local sports undermines the SEA Games’ objective of preparing athletes for the Asian and Olympic Games. By privileging national over collective interests, these norms make a mockery of official discourses about the spirit of regional friendship and cooperation.
