Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Piala Razak di Kuantan

Kuantan, Pahang dipilih sebagai tuan rumah kejohanan hoki Piala Razak dari 26 Oktober hingga 4 November ini sebagai merayakan ulang tahun keputeraan Sultan Pahang dan bukan lagi di ibu kota seperti yang dijadualkan sebelumnya.

Sumber Persekutuan Hoki Malaysia (PHM) berkata, dua gelanggang berumput polygrass di Stadium Hoki Sukpa dan Kompleks Sukan Bandar Indera Mahkota akan digunakan bagi kejohanan 10 hari itu sekali gus menggantikan Stadium Hoki Nasional, Bukit Jalil.

Beberapa minggu lalu, gelanggang di Kuantan didapati tidak memenuhi syarat pertandingan tetapi pemeriksaan sejak Isnin lalu oleh dua pegawai berpengalaman, Datuk G. Vijiyanathan dan C. Paramalingam memberikan kelulusan untuk melangsungkan Piala Razak di situ.

Kejohanan kali ini turut mengundang Singapura, Brunei, Thailand dan Indonesia yang berpeluang menjadikannya persediaan ke Sukan SEA Korat, Disember ini apabila hoki dipertandingkan semula sejak 2001.

Piala Razak tahun lalu berlangsung di Johor Bahru dengan Johor merangkul gelaran Bahagian Satu dengan menewaskan Melaka 5-1 sementara Perak membenam Selangor 4-0 sebagai juara Bahagian Dua.

Monday, October 8, 2007

National players not allowed to play in Razak Cup

The national players will not be released for the Razak Cup tournament which will be held at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Oct 26 to Nov 4.

The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) president Tan Sri Anwar Mohd Nor, said they have decided not to release the national players for the tournament because their fitness level would drop.

“We have learnt from past experience. The 30 players in the training squad would concentrate on preparing for the Champions Trophy which will be held from Nov 29 to Dec 9 in Kuala Lumpur.

“Our priority is the Champions Trophy which is part of the preparation for next year’s Olympic qualifier,” said Anwar.

The other teams in the fray for the Champions Trophy are Olympic champions Australia, world champions Germany, Holland, Spain, South Korea, Pakistan and Britain.

National coach Sarjit Singh said that the national team would go for a one-week mental training stint in Kuching from Oct 25- 31.

“The national players need mental strength to put up a strong challenge in the tournament. Physiologist Frederick Tan will conduct the mental training,” said Sarjit, who guided the national team to win the first ever bronze medal in the recent Asia Cup in Chennai.

Sarjit said that he would also focus more on the fitness level, which was not up to the mark in the Asia Cup.

“The players need to be extremely fit to put up a strong challenge. Besides that we will be facing teams who are much stronger and ranked higher than us.

“We will start training twice a day from tomorrow to improve the fitness level,” said Sarjit.

Sarjit added that they need an all rounder who can play well and at the same time deliver penalty corner goals in the tournament.

“In the Asia Cup our penalty corner conversion rate was not that good. We only managed to score 10 penalty corner goals from the total of 32 we scored in the tournament.

“Defender Zulkifli (Rejab) is good with his penalty corner flicks but cannot sustain his form for the entire match. Another defender Baljit (Singh) has shown progress in his game but needs to improve his penalty corner flicks,” said Sarjit.

Sarjit added that his other options for taking penalty corners are midfielders Jiwa Mohan and Mohd Suffian Mohamed.

“Suffian, however, needs to improve his game if he hopes to win a place in the tournament,” said Sarjit.

Sarjit added that 18 players would be named for the Champions Trophy while the remaining 12 would be named for the Korat SEA Games squad.

“Although 16 players need to be registered for the SEA Games, the remaining four will come from the Champions Trophy squad. The four might join the players in Korat after the Champions Trophy,” said Sarjit.

Coach Sarjit cool over having Germany in Olympic qualifiers

The Malaysian men’s hockey team face a mammoth task in qualifying for next year’s Beijing Olympics, having been drawn with world champions Germany in the men’s qualifying tournament in Kakamigahara, Japan, from April 5-13 next year.

The other teams in the fray are Japan, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland. Only the champions will qualify for Beijing.

National coach Sarjit Singh, however, is unperturbed by world number two Germany’s presence.

“Germany were favourites to beat Belgium in the third playoff in the European Championships last month to qualify for the Olympics. But Belgium surprised Germany to qualify for the Olympics.

“Our mission in Japan is to qualify for the final and we will go all out to achieve it. In the final anything can happen,” said Sarjit. “The players are in high spirits after winning their first-ever bronze in the Asia Cup in Chennai last week. We are leaving no stone unturned in our quest to give our best in the qualifiers.”

Meanwhile, eight-time Olympic champions India are drawn with Britain, Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, and Egypt in the qualifiers in Santiago, Chile, from March 1-9.

The third qualifying tournament is in Auckland from Feb 2-10. It will feature Argentina, Cuba, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago.

The winners of the three qualifiers will join the nine teams who have already assured their place in the 12-nation Olympic competition.