KLHC held by Sapura...

KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) suffered another body-blow when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Sapura in the Premier Division Of the Malaysia Hockey League yesterday.
  This came at the back of a 3-4 defeat to Tenaga on Friday, and now the double champions have shed five points and are in danger of losing their League title.
  Izwan Firdaus scored for Sapura off a field attempt in the third minute, and KLHC only recovered in the 55th minute when Azlan Misron tapped in a penalty corner set-piece from the sidelines.
  "This is a terrible weekend as we dropped five points and will now have to wait for favours from other teams to defend our League title.
  "My players looked like they never recovered form the Tenaga defeat, and played too cautiously as they were afraid of making mistakes today (yesterday). This led to them making more mistakes and creating less scoring opportunities when in the semi-circle," said KLHC coach K. Dharmaraj.
  Sapura lost 0-5 to KLHC in the first leg, and even their coach K. Balakrishnan was taken aback by the draw.
   "We were not physically and mentally ready for KLHC in the first leg, ans let in all five goal in the first half itself. Today (yesterday) we scored early and that almost won us the match," said Balakrishnan.
  In another match, Maybank shocked Tenaga Nasional with a Mohamed Irfan field goal in the 10th minute, but the country's No 1 striker Faizal Saari put his side on level terms with a penalty corner goal in the 28th minute. It was his 13th personal goal in six matches.
  Maybank were in control of the match after that, but failed to score the winner and shared the spoils.
  Meanwhile, Malaysia might skip the Asian Champions Trophy after the  Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) changed its dates.
  AHF had scheduled their tournament from Dec 13-21 in Doha, but were forced to shift the dates after FIH included India and Pakistan in the Champions Trophy to be played in Melbourne on Dec 1-9.
  Now, the Asian Champions Trophy has been moved to Dec 20-27, playing over Christmas, and the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) will decide on Sept 23 at the Council meeting whether to play, or skip the tournament.

DIVISION ONE

              P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts
BJSS          4  3  0  1  17 12   9
Thunderbolts  4  2  1  1  7  5    7
Johor HA      3  2  0  1  10 9    6
Armed Forces  3  1  2  0  4  2    5
Uniten        4  1  1  2  8  10   4
UiTM          3  1  0  2  2  6    3
Politeknik    3  0  0  3  6  10   0

PREMIER DIVISION
                  P  W  D  L  F   A  Pts
TNB               6  4  2  0  16  10 14
KLHC              6  4  1  1  26  7  13
Sapura            6  3  1  2  13  11 10
Maybank           6  2  2  2  14  14  8
UniKL             6  1  0  5  11  19  3
Nur Insafi-MBI    6  1  0  5  8   27  3

  RESULTS: Premier Division: Nur Insafi-MBI 0 UniKL 4, KLHC 1 Sapura 1, Tenaga 1 Maybank 1.
  Division One: Uniten 3 BJSS 6.

Malaysian women score 31 goals in three matches..

MALAYSIAN women qualified for the second round of the World League when they thrashed Sri Lanka 9-0 in Kuantan yesterday.
  This brought their overall tally to a massive 31 goals as they had beaten Singapore and Kazakhstan by identival 11-goal margins.
  The Malaysian goals were scored by Norbaini Hashim (second, 37th), Fazilla Sylvester Silin (sixth, 43rd), Juliani Din (27th), Siti Rahhmah Othman (34th), Siti Noor Amarina (47th) and Nor Hidayah Bokhari (49th, 53rd).
  Kazakhstan will also play in the Second Round, after they beat Singapore 5-1 in an earlier match to finish second on the standings.
  The International Hockey Federation (FIH) made a mockery of the four-team tournament when they allowed two, instead of the champions, to advance.
  RESULTS: Singapore 1 Kazakhstan 5, Malaysia 9 Sri Lanka 0.

Kazakhstan in Second Round

Kazakhstan booked a place in the second round of the World League when they defeated Singapore 5-1 at the Kuantan Hockey Stadium.

  It was a much better performance from Kazakhstan who made use of their experience and utilised the chances to register a convincing win despite a hesistant start.

   They almost took the lead in the 15^th minute through a penalty corner when Vera Domashneva whose attempt went narrowly past the post.

   However Kazakhstan were not to be denied as they opened scoring in the 18^th minute through Gulnara Imangaliyeva.

   But Singapore were undeterred and found the equaliser in the 31^st minute through O Ming Fen whose penalty corner hit was deflected into goal by Kazakhstan defender.

   hree minutes into the scond half Natalya Gataulina weaved past three defenders before slotting the ball past Singaporean custodian Cookie Tan Koon Kim to give Kazakhstan a 2-1 lead.

   Natalya scored a superb third goal for Kazakhstan, sending in a reverse stick flick sailing into goal from the edge of the semi circle.

   Gulnara then added a fourth goal in the 54^th minute, before Vera made it 5-1 in the 65^th minute and Kazakhstan were well on the way to the second round.