Friday, May 6, 2011

Our ladies off to Austria

THE Malaysian women's hockey team left for Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday to play in the Champions Challenge II from May 7-15.
Malaysia finished seventh out of eight teams in the last edition in Kazan, and hope to do much better this time.
"We will play against Belgium, Russia and Belarus in Group B. And after the pool matches, even though there are four teams in each group, we will move into the quarter-finals and get another chance to improve our ranking," said Malaysian Women's Hockey Federation secretary S. Shamala.
Former men's international goalkeeper Nasihin Nubli will coach the team in an international tournament for the first time.
"Our target is to finish fourth, because this tournament is a build-up to our Olympic Qualifier next year," said Shamala.
GROUP A: Chile, Canada, Italy, Austria.
GROUP B: Belgium, Russia, Malaysia, Belarus.
SATURDAY -- Group A: Chile v Italy, canada v Austria; Group B: Belgium v Malaysia, Russia v Belarus.
SUNDAY -- Group A: Canada v Chile, Italy v Austria; Group B: Russia v Belgium, Malaysia v Belarus.
TUESDAY: Group A: Italy v Canada, Chile v Austria; Group B: Malaysia v Russia, Belgium v Belarus.
MALAYSIA: Nadia Rahman (c), Farah Ayuni (GK), Siti Noor Hafiza (GK), Norhasikin Halim, A. Kannagi, Noor Hasliza Ali, Siti Nor Amarina, Juliani Mohamed, Norbaini Hashim, Siti Shahidah, Nor Azlin Sumantri, Nuraini Abdul Rashid,
Siti Rahmah, Nur Amirah, Fazilla Sylvester, Nor Hidayah, Rabiatul Adawiyah, Raja Norsharina.
Coach: Nasihin Nubli; Team manager: Ernawati Mahmud.