Top-scoring defender Nur Aisyah out to put rivals in a corner
KUALA LUMPUR: Defender Nur Aisyah Yaacob converted eight penalty corners to help Malaysia win their first women’s indoor hockey gold in the recent Philippines SEA Games.
The Melaka player, who was the top scorer for Malaysia in the SEA Games, wants to continue doing the same in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), which begins on Jan 10.
The 23-year-old, who is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering at Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten), will be featuring for PKSUniten for the fifth season in the MHL.
Nur Aisyah was out of action for more than two years but national women’s coach K. Dharmaraj provided her a lifeline by calling her up for training with the national women’s indoor hockey team in October.
She scored seven goals to steer Malaysia to win the five-nation Tuanku Zara invitational international women’s indoor hockey tournament in Kuala Kangsar last month.
Nur Aisyah also played for Malaysia in the 2017 SEA Games and Malaysia won the bronze medal in indoor hockey.
“The PKS-Uniten team will be banking on me to handle the defence and also to deliver goals in the MHL.
“But converting penalty corners in indoor hockey is different than in field hockey. I am working on my execution of penalty corners for the MHL. I am also feeling the pressure as I will be the number one penalty corner drag flicker for Uniten in the absence of national player Nuraini (Abdul Rashid), who joined another club in the league for 2020,” said Nur Aisyah, who failed to score a single goal for PKS-Uniten in the 2019 season.
Defender Nuraini, who scored eight goals for Uniten this season, has joined Hockey Academy of Kuala Lumpur.
“I am still young and I definitely want to play for the national field hockey team.
“My performance in the MHL will be important to impress the national selectors,” said Nur Aisyah.
Six teams will feature in the women’s league. The other teams in the fray are Terengganu Ladies team, Blue Warriors, Mutiara Impian-MSSPP-PSHA, Sabah and Hockey Academy of KL.