A RECORD TO SAVOUR
Kirandeep likely to become the youngest player to represent the nation
KIRANDEEP Kaur, who turned 15 recently, will become the youngest hockey player in Malaysia to play in the Asian Games thanks to national women’s coach K. Dharmaraj and the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC).
There were many obstacles in her way in gaining a spot in Dharmaraj’s final-18.
An appeal had to be made to include her in the provisional Asian Games list.
Kirandeep was only called up for training by Dharmaraj in May before the Form Three student of SMK Bukit Bandaraya in Bangsar was included in the team for the World Series in Singapore the following month.
She played in all six matches and scored a goal in the 6-0 win over Thailand in the final.
The forward was also selected for the team’s playing tour in Brisbane where she also found the net as Malaysia won three and drew twice against New South Wales.
Her inclusion was made possible following MHC’s move to appeal to the Olympic Council of Malaysia last week to get Kirandeep into the provisional list.
And as a result, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) granted her an accreditation yesterday.
It is a huge personal victory for Kirandeep as in March, she did not even play in the National Under-16 Championships due to reasons only known by the concerned parties.
MHC are expected to name the men and women’s Asian Games squads today.