The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Only one goalkeeper in hockey team’s Euro tour
- Life goes on for Asyraf after wildcard snub for the Malaysian Open
- James: Daren needs to work more closely with Chong Wei to improve
| Only one goalkeeper in hockey team’s Euro tour Posted: 04 Jul 2011 06:24 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Goalkeeper Mohamed Hazrul Faiz Ahmad Sobri is the only player who is assured of playing in all the matches during the European Tour by the Project 2013 hockey squad – because he is the only goalkeeper selected for the trip. The squad leaves for Germany tonight and they have nine matches lined up during the tour. They will play three matches against the German juniors followed by two against the Dutch juniors. And then four matches against their British counterparts before returning home. Project 2013 coach K. Dharmaraj said yesterday that they picked only one goalkeeper as they wanted to give Hazrul as many games as possible. "We had two other keepers for our tours to Australia and New Zealand earlier this year and also for the recent four-nation meet in Moscow. And they have not impressed us so we had to go back to Hazrul as he has proven himself in the recent Under-18 Asia Cup tournament in Singapore," said Dharmaraj. The two goalkeepers left behind are Mohamed Hafizuddin and Shahrul Azaddin. Besides Hazrul the other two Under-18 players making the debut for the project team are Mohamed Haziq Shamsul and Mohamed Asrul Hasbullah. "These two players from the Under-18 squad were impressive in the Singapore meet and the coaches felt we should give them the chance to play with the project team. "We have a big squad and we will trim the team when we get back depending on the performance of the new players," he added. The Project squad are being prepared for the 2013 Junior World Cup and their immediate target is the Junior Asia Cup next year which also doubles as the world cup qualifiers. Dharmaraj said that they are assured of quality matches during the tour and more importantly they have a chance to gauge their standard against the top European sides. "We have arranged matches against the respective junior sides of the respective countries. It will allow us to see how we stack up against them. Our focus is to have a strong team ready for the qualifiers next year. We also have four other players who are in the senior team. They will rejoin us when they can and we hopefully will get them for some matches together with the current batch of players," he added. The four with the national team are Faisal Saari, Firhan Azhaari, Asri Hassan and Faiz Helmy. Faisal just returned from playing in the Australian national league while the other three are with the senior team in Europe. Project team for Europe Players: Mohamad Hazrul Faiz Ahmad Sobri, Shazrul Imran Nazli, Mohamed Sabri Mohamed, Mohamed Noor Faeez Ibrahim, Mohamed Aslam Mohamed Hanafiah, Arief Iskandar Khamdan, Mohd Fitri Saari, Mohamed Rashid Baharom, Mohamed Taufik Abd Hamid, Mohamed Azrul Hasbullah, Amir Farid Ahmad Fuzi, Mohamad Syamim Mohd Yusof, Mohamad Izad Hakimi Jamaluddin, Mohd Zulhairi Hashim, Mohamed Ramadan Rosli, Mohamed Haziq Samsul, Nor Hizzat Sumantri, Mohamed Fariq Saadon, Dedy Aryadi Jumaidi. Coaches: K. Dharmaraj, K. Gobinathan, Nor Azlan Bakar. Manager: Mirnawan Nawawi. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Life goes on for Asyraf after wildcard snub for the Malaysian Open Posted: 04 Jul 2011 06:23 PM PDT PETALING JAYA: National squash player Mohd Asyraf Azan is slightly disappointed at not being handed the wildcard for the upcoming CIMB Malaysian Open from July 18-23 but he is not about to brood and fret over it. The 23-year-old Asyraf is the national number four player at No. 67 in the world rankings behind Mohd Azlan Iskandar (No.10), Ong Beng Hee (No. 29) and Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (No. 45). He has done well to reach the final of one competition this year, the Fajr Tournament earlier in February before losing to Pakistan's Danish Atlas Khan. And last month he made it to the quarter-finals of the Jena International at Kuwait before losing in the first round of the Pro Reunion Open to world No. 8 Theirry Lincou of France. However, the Squash Racquets Association Malaysia (SRAM), decided to hand the wildcard to Kamran Khan (No. 78), whom they felt had been more consistent of late and was more disciplined in training, leaving Asyraf to play in the qualifiers in order to earn a place in the main draw. "The decision not to give me the wildcard is certainly a little puzzling and it leaves question marks over the decision making process," said Asyraf. "However, I am not going to let it bother me too much. I will continue to work hard as I am confident of qualifying for the main draw." "There are a lot of top players coming and my target will be to make it at least to the quarter-finals," said Asyraf. The Malaysian Open will feature a strong cast of international players such as world No. 6 Gregory Gaultier, who is the top seed, as well as Egyptians Mohamed El Shorbagy (No. 9 and second seed), Hisham Ashour and Tarek Momen. National number one Azlan is the third seed and will face Kamran in the first round. Meanwhile Asyraf plans to use the National Championships, which begins tomorrow at the National Squash Centre, as a warm-up tournament for the Malaysian Open. "My main priority is to get into the main draw for the Malaysian Open and thus I'm happy just to get onto the court and play." "Of course, it will be an extra bonus for me if I win," added Asyraf, who plans on breaking into the world top-40 ranking by the end of the year. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| James: Daren needs to work more closely with Chong Wei to improve Posted: 04 Jul 2011 06:23 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Singles shuttler Liew Daren is back in the good books of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) following his fighting displays at the back-to-back Opens in Singapore and Indonesia. And BAM's high performance director Datuk James Selvaraj wants Daren to rub shoulders more rigorously with world number one Lee Chong Wei to pick up more good traits from the latter for further self-improvement. In fact, Daren is now working closely with Chong Wei to provide quality sparring ahead of the World Championships, which will be held in London from Aug 8-14. Daren will also follow Chong Wei for the centralised training at the Bath University from July 27-Aug 4. James said that he had once given up hope on Daren after the latter's uninspiring performances at this year's Malaysia Open. But Daren has regained his confidence after pushing former world champion Taufik Hidayat to the brink, before losing to him in both the opening rounds of the Singapore and Indonesia Opens. "He has improved of late. He pushes himself during training sessions and also did well to make Taufik sweat before losing. He needs to sharpen some of his strokes. And I have asked coach (Teh) Seu Bock to get him close with Chong Wei so that he can emulate our country's top shuttler to become a better player. Daren is one of the three second stringers left in the elite team following the retirement of Tan Chung Seang. The other two are Chan Kwong Beng and Chong Wei Feng. Daren will take part in the Kedah Open from July 13-17 and a good showing will prove that his performances at the Singapore and Indonesia Open were not flukes. He is seeded fourth and players in his half are World Championships-bound Wong Choong Hann, Kwong Beng and Chun Seang. The top seed and hot favourite is Chong Wei. Besides the assessment on Daren, James also gave his analysis on the contrasting performances of Chong Wei and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong in his report, which was submitted to the BAM's coaching and training committee on Saturday. Chong Wei nailed the Indonesia Open title but Kien Keat-Boon Heong crashed out in the quarter-finals and the defeat had put a damper in the duo's preparation for the World Championships. "Chong Wei is playing exceptional badminton now but we do not see the same urgency, as far as winning is concerned, among the elite players in the men's doubles department. I have suggested that we put a time frame for them to buck up or else, we have to move on with others," he said. "Both Koo and Tan will undergo conditioning training for the next six weeks leading to the world championships. Focus will be on skill work and also their physical fitness and we want to do our best to motivate them ahead of the world meet," he said. Apart from giving his input on the elite players progress at the recent Indonesia Open, James also shared his findings after having spoken to a few top figures from other badminton nations – especially Indonesia, India and Thailand. In fact, he visited Indonesia's national training centre in Cipayung to learnt on how Indonesia conduct their training programme for their back-up and elite shuttlers. He came out impressed with the team unity and camaraderie. He said that it was important for Malaysia to have a well equipped training centre and he hopes that the BAM would get moving on their plans to set up a new national training centre off the Kesas Highway in Awan Besar. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan