Malaysian silver medallist squad gets confidence of MHF for Olympic qualifiers
All the sixteen hockey players of Malaysia, who partook in the 16th Asian Games and obtained a silver medal, have been chosen for the upcoming mega events particularly the qualifiers for the London Olympics. Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) –
the country’s governing body of the sport had announced the national squad comprising of 25 members for the training camp.
The decision to retain the same squad with few new names has been taken in a bid to show confidence over the performing players. It will surely enhance their confidence level in the mega events. It was the squad that edged past India in the semi-finals but
could not maintain its momentum and lost the final game in the hands of Pakistan.
Among the other nine probables, seven new faces have been inducted into the team for upcoming events. The remaining two players are the old names, Mohamed Adabi and Kelvinder Singh, who could not get places in the squad of 2010 Asiad. are the players who
were not included in the team that contended the Asian Gala.
Seven new players chosen for the training camp are Mohamed Rashid Baharom of UiTM, Mohamed Asri Hassan of UniKL, Mohamed Izzat Rahim of Sapura, Mohamed Firhan Ashaari and Faiz Helmy Jalil of TNB, Sharin Mohamed of Maybank and Fitri Abu Bakar of YNS.
It is vital to mention here that the players including Mohamed Asri Hassan, Mohamed Firhan Ashaari, Faiz Helmy and Mohamed Rashid Baharom have been selected in the training project of 2013 while Fitri Abu Bakar, Sharin Mohamed and Mohamed Izzat were part
of the national junior squad back in 2009.
The training camp under the supervision of Tai Beng Hai is scheduled to be held on March 23, 2011 for the upcoming mega events including Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the London Olympics Qualifiers. The event will be held on May 5 in Malaysian city of Kuala
Lumpur.
The federation besides these 25 members is also mulling to test another five names from the Project 2013 squad if they succeeded to impress the selectors.
Among the five, three players including Arief Iskandar Khamdan Nor Hizzat Sumantria and Amir Farid Ahmad Fuzi belongs to University Kula Lumpur (UniKL) while two comprising Nor Faeez and Mohamed Fitri Saari are belonged to Kula Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC).
Despite impressive performance in the MHL, the federation has not included Ismail Abu in the training squad who was fired from the squad owing to disciplinary charges. He marked some seventeen goals in the league but failed to impress the federation’s officials.
Apart from the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the main objective of the squad will be qualifiers for the London Olympics, which are only eleven months faraway.