Asian Games: National Women’s Hockey Squad Target Top-four Finish

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- National women’s hockey head coach C.R. Kumar has set a firm target for his squad to break into the top four at the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, scheduled to run from Sept 19 to Oct 4.

He believes it is time for the Malaysians to move beyond their historical results despite Malaysia facing a daunting task after being drawn in Group A alongside China, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Taiwan and Bangladesh.

“We want quality game from the Malaysian women's hockey team. This is what the is the first and priority in the objective of our planning. Malaysia have all the while at the Asian Games finished fifth because fifth is always within our reach but we try to get into the top four. That is what our target is.

“Obviously in our pool, we have China and South Korea. China obviously we all know is a world-class team, world ranking fourth team and South Korea is one of the strongest side, continuously they have been exposed and they play a lot of tournaments in between. So we beat at least one team to be into the semi-final, that's the priority,” he said.

He said this to reporters when met after a visit by Deputy Chefs de Mission Mohamad Azlan Iskandar and Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamid to the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games here, today.

Addressing the potential fatigue of opponents who have played in other major international tournaments close to the Asian Games dates, Kumar dismissed the notion that it would hinder their performance.

"It's a mindset. To me, it's a mindset. Because science is helping them a lot nowadays. They know what is the recovery system, methods available. So they'll try to fire all the guns... this is not a setback for them," he said.

Having worked with the team for three months including a recent exposure stint in Europe, the coach expressed confidence that the squad is hitting its peak performance at the right moment.

He also said that the final player list has already been submitted to the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) will do the official announcement soon. 

-- BERNAMA