Skip to main content

Hawgood takes over as national hockey coach

Malaysia's new hockey coach Neil Hawgood from Australia watching the national side during the World Hockey League Round Two tournament in Singapore recently. - BERNAMA
Malaysia's new hockey coach Neil Hawgood from Australia watching the national side during the World Hockey League Round Two tournament in Singapore recently. - BERNAMA


SINGAPORE: Neil Hawgood will be the coach when Malaysia compete in the World Hockey League Semi-Finals in Belgium from June 20-July 5.

The 52-year-old Australian was hired by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) as a consultant two weeks ago. He was in Singapore to observe the team in the just-concluded World League Second Round. Malaysia, with Tai Beng Hai as the coach and Stephen van Huizen as his assistant, emerged champions to qualify for the Semi-Finals, which is a qualifying tournament for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

MHC vice-president Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad said they were grateful to Beng Hai for leading the team to win the Second Round.

“Beng Hai has proven himself to be a good coach, but Neil will be in charge of the team at the World League Semi-Finals.

“Beng Hai will be the assistant coach as well as the team manager. We will also retain Stephen as the assistant coach,” said Nur Azmi, who was the team manager in Singapore.
Nur Azmi added that the national players would be given a one-week break after their exertions in Singapore.

“The players will then resume training for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup (in Ipoh from April 2-12). There are 25 players in the training squad, but Neil wants to call another 15 players to form a bigger pool of players. Our priority this year is the World League Semi-Finals as we want to do well to qualify for the Olympics,” said Nur Azmi.



by Aftar Singh - The Star

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’

Saya setuju. We are working on more coaches! “ @ManOlimpik : Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’ http://t.co/7D7wmHWaNy ” — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) June 10, 2014 The benchmark. Can our junior athletes train as hard as Malaysia's world No.1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei? “IT IS okay lah. The training is not too bad lah. I will try lah … Wah, so hard lah today.” These are some of the common statements I hear from our juniors nowadays. It is not only in badminton. It is the easy-going, laid-back attitude and lack of competitiveness at grassroots level that we have problems producing quality players. I have travelled quite a bit. After ending my decade-long career with the national team, I went to play in the league in Europe. It’s different there. The European athletes know what they want. And they do it with real focus. Even the young ones possess admirable self-control and show a high level of commitment. During my time in the ...
12 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more

Atlet Tempuhi Empat Kejohanan Besar Sebelum Olimpik Rio 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Mei (Bernama) -- Empat temasya sukan penting yang dijadual berlangsung mulai Disember ini hingga 2015 menjadi medan persiapan atlet negara sebelum menghadapi cabaran Sukan Olimpik 2016 di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kata Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Khairy Jamaluddin Jumaati. Kejohanan berkenaan ialah Sukan SEA di Myanmar pada Disember, Sukan Asia 2014 di Incheon, Korea Selatan, Sukan Komanwel 2014 di Glasgow, Scotland dan Sukan SEA 2015 di Singapura. Bercakap kepada pemberita selepas melawat Majlis Sukan Negara (MSN) di Bukit Jalil di sini, Khairy berkata kesemua temasya sukan itu dilihat amat penting dalam memastikan impian negara untuk membawa pulang pingat emas Olimpik pertama menjadi kenyataan. "Kita di Kementerian Belia dan Sukan (KBS) mahupun MSN akan memastikan semua atlet mendapat bantuan sewajarnya dalam melakukan persiapan ke arah membawa pulang pingat emas pertama negara di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil nanti," katanya. Dalam perkemb...
6 comments
Read more