Sarawak awarded Fair Play trophy in Raja Norashikin Cup women hockey tourney

by Ting Tieng Hee, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on June 15, 2012, Friday

KUCHING: Sarawak Sukma XV women’s hockey team was awarded the Fair Play trophy for their exemplary display of sportsmanship in the recent Raja Norashikin Cup women hockey tourney held in Seremban, Negri Sembilan.

Despite finishing fourth in Group A, the young and inexperienced State team was no pushovers after ending their challenge with three wins and three defeats.

In the opening match, the nervous State team went down fighting 0-3 to the more experienced Armed Forces followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat to Kedah but stunned the Singapore junior team 1-0 in their third match.

Boosted by their first win in the event, they thumped Selangor Sports School 5-0 and edged a strong Perak side 2-1 before bowing down 0-3 to Melaka.

Sarawak could have improved its position but finished fourth in Group A with nine points after Kedah due to goals scored difference.

State women’s hockey coach Sivasubramaniam C was surprised with the outcome of the team’s first major outing prior to Sukma and expressed satisfaction with the way his charges soaked up the pressure of the prestigious tournament.

According to him, 18 out of the 23 girls he brought to Seremban were newcomers who never played in any high level tournament but they worked well as a unit and scored eight goals despite conceding the same number of goals.

“I am impressed with their high discipline and true fighting spirit…they have worked very hard in giving their opponents a good run for their money,” he said on the state players who could have done better if they were to convert their chances.

“It was a very good experience for them and now they know how it feels like to compete in the country’s highest level tournament,” he added.

“We are not far from other teams in terms of standard…it is just only that the girls are lacking experience and were suffering from fatigue,” Sivasubramaniam said on the recent event which gave good exposure for the state women’s hockey team which has to work harder for Sukma XV in Pahang next month.

He is now looking for potential venues in Kuala Lumpur or Melaka for the state team to train or play friendly matches prior to Sukma which starts on July 7.

“I am quite happy with their performance in this tournament because they have improved a lot within a short spell and we also earned a lot of praises from other teams,” he said.

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