Coach targets Asiad medal for women’s hockey

KUALA LUMPUR: The national women's hockey squad will do their best to secure a podium finish in the upcoming Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games in the middle of this month.

Its head coach, Muhammad Dharma Raj Abdullah expressed his confidence that the players are up to the challenge against several Asian big guns such as South Korea, China and Japan after undergoing several training cum test matches abroad, recently.

“We are going to Jakarta not just to make up the numbers as we will try our best to secure a medal despite knowing our opponents are also quite strong especially Japan who fielded a few World Cup-bound players,” he told a press conference at the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) headquarters yesterday.

Muhammad Dharma Raj revealed that he would be naming the final 20 players to the Asian Games, next week.

Malaysia have been drawn in Group A with China, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan while defending champions, South Korea will spearhead Group B challenge with four others – India, Thailand, Kazakhstan and hosts Indonesia.

Based on the competition format, the top two teams from each group, will advance to the semi-finals.

Malaysia's best achievement was winning the bronze medal when women's hockey made its debut in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, India. - Bernama