Malaysian women smell like a bunch of roses..

PICS: Malaysian women (white and red) on their way to an 11-1 win over Kazakhstan.




THE Malaysian women’s hockey team have not had it this rosy, as they whipped all and sundry to qualify for the Second Round of the World League in Kuantan last weekend.
    Starting with a 11-0 win over Singapore, the women then whipped Kazakhstan 11-1 before rounding up the tournament with a 9-0 win over Sri Lanka.
   A total of 31 goals scored, and only one went past the defenders in the International Hockey Federation tournament which serves as a qualification competition for the World Cup which take place in 2014, with 12 qualification places up for grabs.
    Round Two of the World Series will be regional and generally cover more than one continent. There will be four Round Two tournaments with six teams each. The format will be a single pool Round Robin.
    Fazilla Sylvester Silin also won Malaysia the Player of the Tournament award while Nor Hidayah Bokhari was the joint top-scorer, with six goals, with  Gulnara Imangaliyeva of Kazakhstan.
   The team, coached by former men’s national goalkeeper Nasihin Nubli, will next head for the Lanco Super Series in Australia.
   The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHF) are also looking for a foreign consultant to further strengthen the women’s side of the game.

Olympian Randir passes away..

FORMER Olympian Randir Singh passed away on Sept 15, leaving behind memories of a disciplinarian for those who were coached by him.
   Randir played hockey in the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Malaysia finished eighth among 16 teams.
   He was a midfielder, and the Army man was fondly remembered by veteran coach C. Paramalingam.
   “He played alongside the likes of Khairuddin Zainal, Takbir Ahmad, A. Belvantheran, N. Sri Shanmuganathan and Brian Sta Maria in the Munich Olympics.
   “And he was also the assistant coach during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The thing I remember most about him is that he was a disciplinarian who in his coaching days, was responsible for making the LA team physically at their best,” said Paramalingam.
    After Randir retired as a Warrant Officer, he ventured into business in Klang.
   “We used to met occasionally after he retired from the Army, and talk about how he made the players run up the Sungai Besi hill (high gradient) where all the players would complain and struggle to finish.
   “But later on, they thanked him for the physical training which made them into better players,” said Paramalingam.

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.