Malaysia to battle Thailand for gold
Malaysian women’s team will play Thailand tomorrow for the Hockey Series Open gold medal at the Seng Kang Stadium.
Malaysia beat Singapore 5-0 yesterday to top the standings on a maximum 15 points, while Thailand downed Kazakhstan 4-0 to finish second on 12 points.
Thailand lost to Malaysia 4-0 in this tournament, and are not expected to stop coach K. Dharmaraj’s charges from claiming a golden finish.
The finalists in Singapore will advance to the next stage, yet to be decided by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). From the teams competing in the first round, a minimum of 15 teams will qualify for one of the three separate Series Finals.
Each of the Series Finals will have eight teams playing in them, and will take place throughout the world, with berths into Olympic qualification events up for grabs.
Malaysia got their goals off Nur Zafirah Aziz (first), Wan Norfaiezah Saiuti (sixth), Nur Amirah Shakirah Zulkifli (30th), Fatin Shafika Shukri (56th) and Nuraini Rashid (58th).
“As the highest ranked team in this tournament, of course we want to win gold and even though we did beat Thailand 4-0 in the pool stage, we will not take them lightly in the final.
“Thailand have always had an ambition to beat Malaysia and so, we can’t afford to give them much space tomorrow,” said Dharmaraj.