That's the spirit mate...

By: The Associated Press 02/19/11 6:39 PM

The Associated Press

By: AP Photo/Jon Super

A splinter is seen through the leg of Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang after a crash in the Men's Keirin Final during the Track Cycling World Cup at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester, England, Saturday Feb. 19, 2011. Awang finished third in the race.

Azizulhasni Awang won a bronze medal at cycling's Track World Cup, and boy, did he ever earn it.
The Malaysian rider managed to get back on his bike after a dramatic crash in Saturday's Keirin final and stagger across the line, but it was only afterward that the full extent of his injury became clear.
Pictures showed a large splinter of wood had gone right through his left calf.
Awang was promoted to third after Spanish rider Juan Peralta Gascon was disqualified. But Awang missed his moment on the podium because he was on his way to a hospital.

Keevan loses cool, Maybank seal spot

Nur Insafi’s K. Keevan Raj (centre) has a go at umpire K. Lingam in the MHL match yesterday. — Picture by Fariz Iswadi Ismail.

MAYBANK squeezed into the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Hockey League when they beat Nur Insafi 4-1 at the Tun Razak Stadium yesterday.
The Tigers cemented the sixth and final qualifying spot from the Premier Division with the win.
From Division One, Armed Forces Juniors qualified for the last eight by becoming champions, while Bandar Penawar, Bukit Jalil and Malacca are in the running for the last spot.
The other quarter-finals qualifiers are Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club, Tenaga Nasional, Sapura, UniKL and Yayasan Negri Sembilan.
Tenaga Nasional sealed second spot and the RM40,000 cash prize.
The Maybank-Nur Insafi match went smoothly, until the 67th minute when K. Keevan Raj, a former national player, was flashed the green card by umpire K. Lingam.
Nur Insafi's Keevan then had argument with Lingam, who flashed him the red card, which resulted in the player charging at the umpire and there was chaos for a few minutes.
Players from both sides had to restrain Keevan from attacking the umpire, and the player was escorted off the pitch.
Nur Insafi shocked Maybank with a 27th minute goal by Nur Hrsikesa but collapsed when Engku Malek scored the equaliser in the 30th minute.
The other three goals came easy with Hairul Nizam notching a hat-trick of penalty corner goals in the 48th, 56th and 65th minutes.
"It was a difficult win, as Nur Insafi also had their chances but failed to convert.
"However, now that this is over, we have two weeks to plan for the quarter-finals," said a relieved Maybank coach Wallace Tan.
Maybank still have one League match -- against Yayasan Negri Sembilan in Malacca, but it is a match of no consequences for both teams.
PREMIER DIVISION -- RESULTS Nur Insafi 1 Maybank 4, UiTM 0 Tenaga Nasional 4, Armed Forces-Airod 1 Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club 7, UniKL 2 Sapura 4.
DIVISION ONE: Today: Malacca CC v Bukit Jalil Sports School (Malacca, 5pm), Universiti Sains Malaysia v Bandar Penawar Sports School (USM, 5pm), UniTen v Armed Forces Juniors (KLHA, 5pm).
PREMIER DIVISION
P W D L F A Pt
KLHC 15 13 1 1 72 20 40
TNB 15 11 1 3 46 17 34
SAPURA 15 10 0 5 43 28 30
UNIKL 15 8 3 4 27 27 27
YNS 15 7 0 8 44 41 21
MAYBANK 15 4 3 8 18 25 15
NUR INSAFI 16 4 2 10 27 51 14
UITM 15 3 0 12 21 50 9
ATM 15 3 0 12 18 57 9

DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pt
ATM JNR 10 9 1 0 27 7 28
BPSS 10 6 0 4 21 15 18
BJSS 10 5 1 4 24 13 16
MALACCA CC 11 5 1 5 15 13 16
IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15
USM 11 3 0 8 16 33 9
UNITEN 10 1 2 7 9 26 5

Nur Insafi see red, out of last eight

UMPIRE K. Lingam trying to restrain Nur Insafi's K. Keevan Raj from attacking him in the match against Maybank at the Tun Razak Stadium. Keevan was flashed the red card, and his team lost 4-1 and were bundled out of the quarter-finals.

KLHC lift League title with 2spares

KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) were made to

sweat for 37 minutes, before Nur Insafi cracked 5-0

to hand them their sixth League title in the Premier

Division of the Malaysia Hockey League yesterday.

Four of the titles (three League and one Overall)

came under the Ernst & Young banner, while the

other two League titles from the evolved KLHC.

The League title and RM60,000 was won with two

matches to spare, against Armed Froces-Airod

today and Tenaga Nasional next weekend.

However, KLHC must have broken into cold

sweat in the dressing room, as the score stood at

0-0 at the half-time hooter.

But former national player Chua Boon Huat gave

them a lifeline with a 37th minute field goal, his

13th this season, and forced the flood-gates open

wide.

The other goals came easy with Tengku Ahmad

Tajuddin scoring back-to-back in the 39th and 45th

minutes, while Amerullah Aziz (50th) and Ahmad

Anuar (55th).

KLHC team manager George Koshy was a little

worried initially, but a half-time lecture in the

dressing room did the trick.

"It was close in the first half as Nur Insafi had

their chances, but a 'good lecture' in the dressing

room woke them up and now we will have to work

towards lifting the Overall title," said George.

On players: "Chua and Ismail (Abu) who are both

former players, contributed immensely in our

campaign and took some of the burden off the

regular goalscorers in the national team like

Tengku (Ahmad Tajuddin)," said George.

"We expected a defeat anyway as KLHC are too

strong for any team in this tournament, and are not

overly worried, as our target is to beat Maybank

(today) and confirm our spot in the quarter-finals,"

said team manager S. Thaitchana.

The first match saw a bizzare ending as

bottom-of-the-table UiTM beat Yayasan Negri

Sembilan (YNS) 3-2 in a rain interrupted match.

Torrential rain stopped play in the 45th minute,

and UiTM were spared the agony of playing the

remaining 25 minutes because they only had two

reserves as eight players could not make it for the

match.

UiTM goals were scored by Ikmal Jabar (10th),

Rashid Baharom (33rd) and Faheed Saifullah (42nd).

YNS, who had the full squad as all their Pakistan

players had returned after playing in a domestic

tournament, got their goals off Pakistanis'

Muhammad Imran (seventh) and Shakeel Abbasi

(29th).

PREMIER DIVISION: RESULTS -- UiTM 3 Yayasan

Negri Sembilan 2, Nur Insafi 0 Kuala Lumpur

Hockey Club 5, UniKL 1 Tenaga Nasional 5, Sapura

4 Maybank 0.

TODAY: Nur Insafi v Maybank (4pm), UiTM v

Tenaga Nasional (6pm), Armed Forces-Airod v

Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (8pm), UniKL v Sapura

(KLHA, 6.30pm).

*All other matches at the Tun Razak Stadium.

DIVISION ONE: Results -- Malacca CC 1 Ipoh City

Hall 1, Universiti Sains Malaysia 0 Bukit Jalil

Sports School 5, UniTen 0 Bandar Penawar Sports

School 5.

Sunday: Malacca CC v Bukit Jalil Sports School

(Malacca, 5pm), Universiti Sains Malaysia v Bandar

Penawar Sports School (USM, 5pm), UniTen v

Armed Forces Juniors (KLHA, 5pm).

PREMIER DIVISION

P W D L F A Pt

KLHC 14 12 1 1 65 19 37

TNB 14 10 1 3 42 17 31

UNIKL 14 8 3 3 25 23 27

SAPURA 14 9 0 5 39 26 27

YNS 15 7 0 8 44 41 21

NUR INSAFI 15 4 2 9 26 47 14

MAYBANK 14 3 3 8 14 24 12

ATM 14 3 0 11 17 50 9

UITM 14 3 0 11 21 46 9

DIVISION ONE

P W D L F A Pt

ATM JNR 10 9 1 0 27 7 28

BPSS 10 6 0 4 21 15 18

BJSS 10 5 1 4 24 13 16

MALACCA CC 11 5 1 5 15 13 16

IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15

USM 11 3 0 8 16 33 9

UNITEN 10 1 2 7 9 26 5

DIVISION ONE

P W D L F A Pt

ATM JNR 10 9 1 0 27 7 28

BPSS 10 6 0 4 21 15 18

BJSS 10 5 1 4 24 13 16

MALACCA CC 11 5 1 5 15 13 16

IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15

USM 11 3 0 8 16 33 9

UNITEN 10 1 2 7 9 26 5

109th Amateur Open in Malacca

THE Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) will be
organising the prestigious 109th Malaysian Amateur
Open in Malacca on May 19-22 at the A’Famosa Golf
Resort.
Attracting participants mainly from the
Asia-Pacific region, Malaysian contenders are no
more accorded automatic entry as they are required
to qualify through the Sabah Amateur Open,
Sarawak Amateur Open and Malaysian Amateur
Close tournaments.
“The MGA is working towards achieving the target
of having Malaysian champions in both the
men’s and the newly launched women's division. It
has been a while since we’ve had a Malaysian
name engraved on the championship trophy,” said
MGA President, Datuk Robin Loh.
“As locals no longer enjoy automatic entry, the MAO
is a culmination of the qualifying rounds
for the Peninsular (45th Malaysian Amateur Close
scheduled for April 5-7), Sabah Amateur Open
(April 22-24) and Sarawak Amateur Open (May
13-15).”
Since its inauguration in 1894, the Malaysian
Amateur Open Golf Championship has gone through
several transformations in name, challenge
trophies, title sponsors and format of play.
This will be only the third edition that will include a
women's division after it was introduced at
the 107th Malaysian Amateur Open at the Kelab
Golf Sarawak in 2009.
R. Nachimuthu was the last Malaysian to have won
the title when the championship was held at
the Kelab Golf Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah in 1997.
There have been several near-misses for our
players as was the case with Iylia Jamil finishing
runner-up to champion Mhark Fernando
of the Philippines at the Damai Laut Golf & Country
Club last year.
In the ladies’ division, 17-year-old Thidapa
Suwannapura from Thailand overcame a
threestroke
deficit in the final round to clinch the title by two
shots over compatriot Yupaporn
Kawinpakorn with our national player Kelly Tan
finishing third in the 2010 edition.