Recent developments in the Malaysian Women Hockey Association – Hockey News
The introduction of the High Development Division and appointment of the new coach are the two vital milestones laid by the authority, for heading towards the right direction for Women’s hockey in March, 2011.
Former National goal-keeper, Nasihin Nubli, has been appointed as the national senior Women Hockey team’s new coach, whereas the existing coach, Yahya Atan, got promoted as the Director of a new Division formed in the Malaysian Women’s Hockey Association
(MWHA), named as the High Performance Development Division.
Previously, Nasihin used to assist Yahya since 2007. Being appointed as the chief coach now, was not less than an achievement for Nubli. His first assignment was to prepare the National women team for the Champions Challenge 2, which is currently underway
in Vienna, since May 7-15, 2011. Ernawati Mahmud was appointed as his assistant for the task assigned.
MWHA Secretary, S. Shamala, believed that after the February’s centralised training, the team was ready for the semi-finals. The Secretary shared the news that before the Champions Challenge 2, few friendly matches had been fixed with Japanese clubs and
European national teams by the association, with a view to improve the team’s performance before the Champions Challenge.
MWHA’s President, YM Raja, previously laid emphasis on the performance of the hockey team in the Champions Challenge 2. Malaysia is currently ranked sixth among the eight teams that have participated and the prime target set for the side, is to qualify to
the semi-finals. Raja is confident upon the team to perform well in the event.
The team underwent training since the second week of February for participation in the Champions Challenge 2. The training included three practice matches that were scheduled against the Sony Japan team (Japan’s top club), from March 19-21, 2011. Soon after
these matches, the Malaysian women National team will head to their Australia’s tour.
On the other hand, the High Performance development division was also created to prepare the team for the qualifiers of the big event approaching in 2012, the London Olympics and a couple other games in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 17th
Asian Games in Korea.
A similar emphasis also will be driven towards the preparation for the qualifiers of the 2012 Continental Junior World Cup.
This new division will manage the complete national development programmes and the IMAS programmes for the Women Hockey players. Yahya will be the head for both the programmes.
According to the secretary of MWHA, the former coach's experience will be optimally suitable to ensure that many tiers of national teams are formed and developed for the future ahead. Shamala, added, "His first assignment will be to mould a national under-21
team for next year's Junior World Cup Qualifiers. The association will also work together with the Education Ministry to ensure our grassroot programmes take off well."
Malaysia is up against three teams Belgium, Russia and Belarus in Pool B of the Champions Challenge 2, holding sixth position with 540 points. In order to rise up, the team needs to strive hard and practice well.
It is left to see whether Nasihin justifies his new job very well and meet the expectations of the MWHA President.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian team appeared in two matches at the Vienna tournament against Belgium and Belarus. Unfortunately, they were defeated in both the encounters and need to win all their upcoming matches, in order to qualify for the semi-final round.
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