Sophia and Siti dropped

18/07/2002

THE national women's hockey squad was trimmed to the final 16 yesterday
and the two dropped were Sophia Akhir and Siti Sarah.
Not that they were not good enough for the Manchester Commonwealth
Games, but Siti is carrying an injury while Sophia is a goalkeeper and
only two are needed in that department.
"It was a difficult decision to make because the girls have been
training hard over the year.
"Siti is one of our top defenders but she injured her kneecap and will
need another month to recover.
"On Sophia, the choice of dropping her was a difficult one because she
was as good as Khairunnissah Kamaruzaman and Siti Azura Yusuf," said coach
C. Sivasubramaniam.
The squad will be led by skipper Nor Saliza Ahmad, who will face the
torrid task of rallying her team-mates against Scotland, South Africa and
Australia.
The squad has an average age of 19 and the three youngest players are
17-years-olds Khairunnissah, Intan Nurairah Khusaini and Nadia Abdul
Rahman.
The trio will be making their debut in the international scene and are
from the Under-18 project squad.
"Some of the girls lack international exposure and might get stage
fright but we have been drilling them with the neccessary training and I
am confident that they will not let their team-mates down," said Siva.
The squad: A. Chitra Devi, Norfaraha Hashim, Lisa Ludong, Catherine
Lumbor, Nor Saliza Ahmad, Angela Kais, Ayu Afinda Hamdani, Mizawati Bakri,
A. Kanagi, Norhafizah Azman, Khairunnissah Kamaruzaman, Nadia Abdul
Rahman, Intan Nurairah Khusaini, Rozilawati Rasidi, Sebak Kari, Siti Azura
Yusuf.
(END)