Asian Championship Last Ticket For Malaysian Women's Team To World Cup

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia), July 5 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian women's hockey team chances of featuring in the 2018 World Cup are still open if they can spring a surprise by winning the Asian Women's Hockey Championship 2017 in Japan this October. National women’s team head coach Muhammad Dharmaa Raj Abdullah said this followed the team’s failure in the World Women's Hockey World League (WHWL) Semi-final Round in Brussels, Belgium, last week. "Whether the World Cup is still open or closed depends on the results at the Asian Championship. It will be hard since we will compete against elite teams such as China, Korea, Japan and India. "Who knows? Teams who have qualified for the World Cup may field their reserves in the Asian Championship," he told reporters after arriving from Brussels at KL International Airport (KLIA), here Tuesday. In the WHWL competition, Malaysia who were drawn with 2014 World Cup runners-up Australia, New Zealand (ranked 5th in the world) , Spain (10) and Belgium (14) in Group B. Malaysia lost 0-3 to Australia, lost 1-3 to Spain, lost 0-9 to Belgium and lost 0-1 to New Zealand in the group stage before closing the campaign with a 0-1 loss to Scotland to finish in tenth place. Meanwhile, team captain Siti Noor Amarina Ruhani said the team is at their best and hopes the players can maintain the momentum ahead of 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games from August 19 to 30. -- BERNAMA