The Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (MOEYS) had recently barred the Cambodia Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (CBPSF) from participating at the 20th Southeast Asian Bodybuilding Championship in Yangon, Myanmar from May 14-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MOEYS in a letter to the federation prior to the championships, had indicated that Cambodia is a signatory to the International Convention against Doping in Sport and complies with the World Anti-Doping Code, while the (CPBSF) is not yet under a structure that complies with the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CPBSF is currently affiliated to the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (WBPSF), which is not a signatory of the WADA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the decision is designed to ensure clean sports, it also puts into question on whether various other sports international federations including for Kun Khmer, Muay, Ouk Chaktrong, Silat, Vovinam and Kun Bokator are not WADA signatories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al these sports have been part of the SEA Games medal sports competition. Silat and Kabaddi, another sports that has yet to be a WADA signatory, were competed at the Thailand SEA Games last year. Silat has also been already included for the next SEA Games in Malaysia in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on the ruling against bodybuilding, will all these sports would also be barred from any international participation until their respective governing bodies become WADA signatories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is silat, which is the traditional sports of both Malaysia and Indonesia, going to be dropped from the SEA Games next year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer is a no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because, the issue of doping at the SEA Games is handled by the SEA Games Federation and WADA does not require any of the international federations to be their signatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinlone is also not a signatory of WADA but they have been given the benefit of associating with the silat, especially for the SEA Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, for sports like Kun Khmer and Muay, who are not WADA signatory\u2019s they are unlikely to forge similar association with Muay Thai, who are WADA compliant, due to major ideological differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The just concluded Southeast Asian Bodybuilding Championship in Yangon still saw the participation of other SEA teams. With the National Anti-Doping Agencies (NADA) in South-East-Asia in good standing with WADA, the matter of the participating athletes were already under the jurisdiction of the respective NADA. That should also have been the case with the Cambodia Anti-Doping Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cambodian body builders could still have made it to championships if they were tested and deemed to be clean of doping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, Malaysian Mohd Syarul Azman Mahen Abdullah was picked as the National Sportsman of the Year 2023 in his country after winning the title at the world championships conducted by the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps, there is a need to re-evaluate how the anti-doping in Cambodia operates to enable and facilitate the participation of national athletes in the affected sports in international events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This can be done in tandem while pressure is put on the said international federations to be WADA compliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (MOEYS) had recently barred the Cambodia Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-newsbeat"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building.jpg",1280,1010,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-300x237.jpg",300,237,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-768x606.jpg",640,505,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-1024x808.jpg",640,505,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building.jpg",1280,1010,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building.jpg",1280,1010,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"National<\/a> Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/body-building.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13053"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13056,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions\/13056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}