BJSS go for young blood

BUKIT Jalil Sports School will field a young Division One side for the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) in an effort to prepare a team for the Junior Hockey League (JHL) next year.
The MHL Division One tournament starts on Friday with seven teams battling for honours.
The top two qualify for the Premier Division quarter-finals, and also gain automatic entry into the higher division.
The seven aspirants this year are Ipoh City Council, Bandar Penawar Sports School, Bukit Jalil Sports School, Armed Forces Juniors, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Malacca Municipal Council.
BJSS will also be fielding budding 16-year-old Thung Wei Chia from Kelantan.
"Basically, 18 of my 20 players will be eligible to compete in the JHL next season and that is our end target. The school will be exposing many new young players so that they will be better prepared for the junior league," said BJSS coach S. Prakash.
BJSS open accounts against Armed Forces Juniors on Friday. The League ends on Feb 25.
The Premier Division of the MHL will start on Dec 17.
"We have a relatively good side but most of them lack exposure and that is why we are eager to see them in action in the MHL.
"Also, our Chinese payer Wei Chia has proved to become a promising defender, and the MHL will better prepare him to play in the JHL, just like the others," added Prakash.
The current national senior and junior teams do not have a single Chinese player with the last to represent Malaysian was Chua Boon Huat.
Wei Chia is also the only Chinese player listed in the seven-team MHL Division One tournament.

KL retain u-14 title

The Kuala Lumpur team celebrate after defending their title yesterday. — Picture by Asman Ibrahim

DEFENDING champions Kuala Lumpur subdued an aggressive Perak 2-1 to retain the MHF-NSC-Milo-MSSM Boys' National Under-14 hockey title at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Hockey Stadium yesterday.
Both sides enjoyed their share of early play without any result until in a goalmouth melee when Perak's Mohd Alif Faizal's took advantage of the situation to score past a fumbling Kuala Lumpur goalkeeper Muhd Shafie Sharom.
After the breather, KL upped the tempo and harassed the Perak defence and it paid off when Nor Syafiq Sumantri beat Perak's replacement goalkeeper Mohd Amirul Abd Halim to equalise.
Stung by the goal, Perak went on the hunt for another goal but to no avail, and even missed two sitters.
KL, after soaking up all that their opponents could throw at them, produced some thrilling play resulting in Jagveen Singh getting the winning goal two minutes from time.
KL coach Saiful Munir Mansor was thrilled with his charges' performance and said they played according to instructions.
“When we were down by a goal, I was not so worried as it has become a norm that my boys play better under pressure and always come back from behind to win," said Saiful.
"It happened twice in this tournament, in the group match we came from behind to beat Malacca and in the semi-finals we also came from a goal down to beat Selangor in the extra time."
Earlier, Selangor took third spot when they slammed Terengganu 7-0.

RESULTS - Final: Kuala Lumpur 2 Perak 1; 3rd-4th: Selangor 7 Terengganu 0.
Roll of honour - Man of the Match: Jagveen Singh (Kuala Lumpur); Top scorer: Mohd Haikal Zamri -- 13 goals (Selangor); Best goalkeeper: Mohd Amirul Abd Halim (Perak); Player of the Tournament: Nazrulmubin Zebidi (Selangor); Fair play: Perak.