Sentul bites the dust.

The proposed Indonesian round of the World Superbike Championship and its support events has been canned, reducing the senior calendar to 14 rounds in 2008.

The cancellation was revealed in a short statement issued overnight by motorcycle racing's governing body, the FIM, but no official reason was given for the event being axed from its 12 October slot at the end of the season.

Sentul, however, has come in for a lot of criticism following the recent GP2 Asia meeting there, which was blighted by poor track conditions and below-par marshalling.

Although heavy rain in the days leading up to the meeting did not help matters, track debris was a major problem, with cars and helmets being badly damaged by flying stones and dust, as the surface broke up under the power of the F1 feeder series.

On top of that, both races were severely interrupted by safety car periods prolonged by inadequate marshalling that saw ill-equipped rescue teams struggling to remove stranded machines from the gravel traps around the circuit.

The FIM will not find a replacement event as a result of the axe falling on Sentul, and the 2008 calendars will now feature 14 rounds in Superbike, 13 in Supersport and ten in Superstock.

There will now be a four-week gap between the new penultimate round in France and the proposed finale at the new Algarve circuit in Portugal.