6th AIMAG in Thailand cancelled due to lack of budget, infrastructure

The 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Art Games scheduled to take place in Bangkok and Chonburi in Thailand from November 21 to 30 has been cancelled with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) citing various factors for the decision.

The OCA said in a letter sent to members NOCs dated August 19 that the quadrennial sporting event — which was originally slated to take place in 2021 and had already been postponed multiple times — was officially cancelled.

The OCA added that the Executive Board unanimously voted for the cancellation last August 15, but gave the Thai organizers to meet all the requirements. However, the organizing committee failed to comply, resulting in the tournament’s cancellation.

A few of the factors that affected AIMAG being called off was the lack of budget and infrastructure, as well as other requirements.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) expressed disappointment over the latest development, especially with several national team athletes already starting their preparations for AIMAG.

But POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said there’s nothing that they can do about it and stressed they will now have to look forward to other major events.

“It’s frustrating, but we’ll have to move on,” Tolentino said in a statement.

The Philippines was supposed to send 421 athletes to the AIMAG in a bid to surpass its previous showing in 2017 where the country bagged 30 medals, including a pair of gold medals from Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez of jiu-jitsu.

“We were hoping to improve on the two gold medals Meggie [Ochoa] and Annie [Ramirez] won in jiu-jitsu as well as the 14 silver and 14 bronze medals clinched in the 2017 edition in Ashgabat [Turkmenistan],” Tolentino said.

“But there are no wasted time and effort as far as our athletes are concerned because they remain in top form and there are other international competitions that they could focus on.”

Originally, the 6th AIMAG edition was scheduled to be held three years ago but was moved to a later date three times before the cancellation this month.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News