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New sport: Kyon for Myanmar SEA Games?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

National silat exponents during
training in Berakas last year.
Traditional martial arts sports
such as silat, wushu,judo, vovinam
(Vietnamese martial art) were
offered in the previous Games
and now Myanmar wants to
introduce 'kyon'. Picture: BT

The traditional Arakanese sport known as 'kyon' a type of wrestling is being proposed for inclusion in the 2013 SEA Games to be hosted by Myanmar.

The call comes despite reminders for the SEA Games Federation (SGF) to limit the number of sports offered in the Myanmar Games, especially traditional sports.

"We can propose to include kyon in the 2013 SEA Games as a local traditional sport, but the event must have interest to be played by at least four nations," U Zaw Aye Maung, the Rakhine Affairs Minister of Rangoon Division, was quoted as saying by Narinjara, the independent Arakanese news agency in Myanmar.

"We're now preparing to send the discipline and methods of playing our traditional kyon with video illustrations to the member nations. If the members are interested, then it will be included in the coming SEA Games," he said.

Traditional martial arts sports such as silat, wushu, judo, vovinam (Vietnamese martial art) were offered in the previous Games.

Describing kyon as an interesting sport, the Minister said: "We hope that other people in our region will also be interested in the sport, and we're now trying our best to include the sport in the Games."

The article said kyon derives from the combination of two Arakanese words "kyar" and "yon", which mean "tiger" and "quick" in English and in kyon, wrestlers attempt to floor their opponents just like a quick tiger attack.

Arakanese, also called Rakhine, is an ethnic group centred in the Arakan coastal region of southern Myanmar.

Myanmar will host the Games in Nay Pyi Taw and has proposed 27 sports.

ASEAN members have suggested that the SGF limit the number of sports for the Myanmar SEA Games to those offered in the Asian and Olympic Games.

Indonesia, who hosted the 2011 Games last November, organised 43 sports, making it the largest number of sports offered since the SEA Games' inception in Bangkok in 1959.Bernama

Courtesy from Brunei Times