Malaysia Tigress take no chances

IN a bid to secure the women’s Sea Games field hockey gold, coach K. Dharmaraj will field his 18 players who competed in the recent World League Semi-finals in Belgium.

Malaysia will be gunning for a clean sweep of four golds, two each in field and indoor hockey, and even men’s coach Stephen van Huizen has selected the World Cup team 18.

The men’s and women’s field will see Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand competing against the hosts.

And in the indoor event, the Malaysian men will be up against Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The women will play against Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

“I was told to submit the Sea Games team list before we left for Belgium and I named the same players that competed in the World League.

“We need to field the best available, because Thailand have improved much and might give us trouble if we field a mixed side ( juniors and seniors),” said Dharmaraj.

Dharmaraj’s charges won silver in the World League Round Two in Kuala Lumpur, but finished 10th in the World League Semifinals

While the men struggled to win gold in the last Games in Singapore, when they drew 2-2 with the hosts and only won the shootout 4-3, the Malaysia Tigress beat Thailand 3-1 for the gold.

“The players are on a break now and will only start training in a week’s time. I believe we will win gold again, but that does not give us a reason to be complacent and take things for granted.

“My charges gave their best in Belgium, but that was against higher ranked teams. At the Sea Games level, we are the highest ranked and need to justify it,” said Dharmaraj. Jugjet Singh