Women’s hockey team seek victory at World Series

KUALA LUMPUR: Following a good outing in the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) in South Korea, the Malaysian women’s hockey team are all geared up to win the World Hockey Series in Singapore next month.

Malaysia, ranked 22 in the world, stunned world No. 12 Japan 3-2 to finish fourth in the five-nation tournament in Donghae City, South Korea, early this month.

Six teams will feature in the World Series at the Sengkang Stadium from June 23-July 1.

Besides Malaysia and hosts Singapore, the other teams in the fray are Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Thailand.

The World Series is the qualifying tournament for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The top two teams in the World Series will advance to the second round of the tournament.

National coach K. Dharmaraj said that he was quite satisfied with his players’ performance in the ACT.

“But there are a few things we need to improve like our tackling, penalty corner attack and also penalty corner defence for the tournament in Singapore,” said Dharmaraj, who has been coaching the women’s team since 2016.

Dharmaraj guided the national team to second in the World League Round Two in Kuala Lumpur last year to qualify for the World League Semi-finals in Belgium last year June.

It was the first time the national women’s team featured in the World League Semi-finals to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in London next month.

Dharmaraj said that Thailand would pose a strong challenge for his team to win the tournament in Singapore.

“But I have faith and confidence in my players. I am optimistic that they will rise to the occasion to give their best in the World Series.

“We will not play any friendly matches in preparation for the World Series but will train and work on our tackling and penalty corners set-pieces,” said Dharmaraj.

There are 26 players in the training squad and Dharmaraj will name the final squad of 18 players by June 20.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian men’s team lost 1-0 to Olympic champions Argentina in the first friendly match in Buenos Aires yesterday.

Malaysia will play another four more matches against world No. 2 Argentina in preparation for the Asian Games in Jakarta from Aug 18-Sept 2.