Wednesday, July 9, 2014

CWG To Be A Warm Up For National Hockey Squad Ahead Of Asian Games

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- The national hockey squad will take the opportunity of competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland this month to be a "warm up" for the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea in October.

National hockey chief coach Muhammad Dharma Raj Abdullah, speaking to reporters at the Bukit Jalil Hockey Stadium here today, said players who did not get to play during the World Cup at The Hague, Netherlands last May would be given a chance to show their capabilities at the CWG to earn a place in the squad for the Asiad.

He said the squad's target now is to make the final of the Asian Games to grab an automatic berth in the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

Australia, New Zealand and England would pose the biggest challenge for Malaysia at the CWG, he said, adding that the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) had not set any medal target for the CWG squad.

Dharma Raj said the absence of a medal target was not because the national team were big flops at the World Cup. They came out last out of 12 teams.

Malaysia's best performance at the CWG was winning a bronze at the 2006 edition in Melbourne, Australia while for the Asiad, the national squad managed a bronze at the 2002 edition in Busan, South Korea and a silver at the last edition in Guangzhou, China in 2010.

-- BERNAMA

No comments:

Post a Comment