MHC set top-two target for juniors in Asia Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: The seniors flopped again. Now it is up to the juniors to salvage some pride for Malaysian hockey.

That is why the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) have targeted a top-two finish in the Junior Asia Cup at the Bukit Serendit Hockey Stadium in Malacca from May 3-13.

The tournament, which serves as a qualifier for next year’s Junior World Cup in New Delhi, has attracted nine other teams — defending champions India, Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran and Thailand.

With India guaranteed their place as the hosts. the top three among the other nine teams will win automatic berths to New Delhi.

But what is surprising is that, with the tournament just six weeks away, the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) have yet to conduct the draw.

MHC deputy president Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad wants to see the Project 2013 squad qualify for the Junior World Cup to make up for the national team’s failure to qualify for the London Olympics.

“The Project 2013 team are the future and we want them to take every tournament seriously from now on,” said Azmi, who is also the organising chairman of the Junior Asia Cup.

“We have had enough of the national team’s failures. We don’t want the juniors to be losers too.”

Azmi, who is the Malacca HA deputy president, said the Project 2013 squad did well to win the Sultan of Johor Cup last November. He believes they should not have any problems qualifying for the Junior Asia Cup final.

“The squad will be strengthened by the Saari brothers — Faizal and Fitri — who played in the Olympic qualifier in Dublin.

“We will also have national forward Mohd Firhan Ashaari, who was dropped from the Dublin squad,” said Azmi.

The Project squad will also have the services of two other national trainees – Faiz Helmi Jali and Amir Farid.

Azmi said that renovation work on the stadium would be completed by April 15.

“Apart from the two existing changing rooms, we will also have two mobile changing rooms for the adjacent pitch.

“We have also renovated the media room as we expect a large number of journalists from Asia to cover the tournament,” said Azmi.

He said the opening ceremony would be held at Sungai Malacca on May 2 with team officials and players sailing past on boats.

The Project squad will begin their training at the Malacca turf in the third week of April.