Sibu sweep U12 crowns
by Ting Tieng Hee, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on February 17, 2012, Friday
CHAMPIONS AGAIN: Sibu players celebrate their victory with Dzulkhaini (second left, front), assistant coach Rubat Chanat (left, back row), team manager Geraman Jengging and Sibu hockey technical advisor Azmi Kadir (right).
KUCHING: Double happiness as boys and girls team emerge champions.
Sibu reclaimed their Boys U12 crown of the Sarawak Schools Sports Council Boys/Girls U18 and U12 hockey tournament after they beat Kuching 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out at the Sarawak Hockey Stadium yesterday.
Goalkeeper Edward Edwin became the hero for the Sibu team as he saved the second penalty flick from Kuching’s Zarol Adrif Sahdi while Nicholas Aldeon Singh and Ikmal Rezza Zainal missed their penalties.
Kuching’s Nigel Anderson Singh and Mohammad Shahlihin Ismail were both on target when they were the first players to take the penalty flicks.
Also on target for Sibu were Marcos Dinggai and Dezila Wilfred Bayang.
Earlier, Ikmal put Kuching ahead with his field goal in the fourth minute of play.
However, Dezila levelled the score at 1-1 when he struck in the 21st minute inside the penalty box.
The teams were tied at 1-1 after extra time.
With the victory, Sibu completed a double in the U12 competition.
On Wednesday, the Sibu girls had already won the U12 contest after registering 1-0 and 2-0 wins over Kuching and Samarahan respectively.
Kuching and Samarahan will play their final league match today to decide who finish second and third.
“We are very happy to become the champions again this year after finishing third to Kuching and Samarahan last year. We were also the champions in 2009 and 2010,” informed Sibu head coach Dzulkhaini Mohd Tajudin to The Borneo Post.
He said the team members were the products from a three-year development programme at SK SEDC and they had matured into good players.
“Our success is due to the good preparations and early training of the players. I must commend my assistant coach, team officials and the players for their hard work and strong commitment to training,” revealed Dzulkhaini.
“Although we were trailing Kuching by a goal, we did not give up easily and put up a spirited fight back to equalise. I was pretty confident when coming to the penalty shoot-out because our players were well trained to take penalty flicks.”
Coming in third place were Mukah who beat Samarahan 2-0 in the play-off.
Meanwhile, Kuching qualified for the Boys U18 semi-finals after beating Miri 1-0 for their third successive win yesterday.
They will face Samarahan in the last four today while the other semi-finals will be played between Sibu and Samarahan.
In the Girls U18 competition, Samarahan looks set to win the crown after beating Miri 2-0 in their third league match yesterday.
All they need to do is to earn a point by holding Kuching to a draw today.
Kuching, who collected six points from two wins and one defeat, can still become the champion if they beat Samarahan in the final match while Mukah, with six points from two wins and one loss, also have a mathematical chance of clinching the trophy if they can beat Sibu by a big margin today.
