Malaysian Women's Hockey Team Win Third Consecutive Gold In Sea Games

From Nursyabiha Sukri and Mazani Mohd Yusoff SINGAPORE, June 13 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian women's hockey team are in a class of their own after winning the gold medal for the third consecutive time in the SEA Games, defeating Thailand 3-1 in the finals at the Sengkang Hockey Stadium here Friday. The squad coached by Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim faced stiff opposition from the Thai team during the first half, which ended 0-0. In the second half, the national team displayed an energised performance and went ahead with Hanis Onn Nadia's brilliant field goal in the 37th minute. Although the Thai team played it rough against the national squad, Fatin Shafiqa Sukri piled pressure on them after scoring a field goal in the 45th minute. Four minutes later, Nurul Nabihah Mansur secured Malaysia's third goal of the night, putting them in a comfortable position. Sirikawan Wongkeaw of Thailand then scored their only goal of the match, in the 51st minute. Nasihin described the victory at the biennial event a 'special one' because the national team successfully demonstrated a professional performance. "I praise all the players tonight. We could see this evening that the performance of Thailand has greatly improved. In the first half, the team played very carefully, restricting our chances. "In the second half, I put five players in attack. I am proud the team was able to defend the gold medal and put the country ahead of all the other teams in Southeast Asia. "The referee today seemed a little bit biased, disturbing the rhythm of our game, and I had to change a lot of strategies according to the referee's behaviour tonight," he said. The women's team previously won the gold medal in the SEA Games held in Korat, Thailand, in 2007, and two years ago in Myanmar. Hockey was not contested in the 2009 and 2011 edition of the games held in Laos and Indonesia, respectively. Meanwhile, the Malaysian squash team stayed on course for a clean sweep in the 2015 SEA Games after both the men and women's squads moved into Friday's final match at the Kallang Squash Centre. Malaysia, who are also the top seed in both categories, were in their own element as the men's squad defeated Indonesia 2-0 while the women's squad, spearheaded by the winner in the individual event, Rachel Arnold, also registered the same result against hosts Singapore in the semi-final match. The victory sees the men's team squaring off against Singapore and the women's team taking on Indonesia in the final battle. In Friday's match, Rachel showed no mercy against Singapore's Mao Shi Yuan as she only took 23 minutes to secure a 11-7, 11-5 and 11-7 win before Vanessa Raj sealed the winning point after edging Joannah Yue 11-4, 11-9 and 11-8 in 32 minutes. The men's squad then emulated the feat, starting with Valentino Bong who edged Sandi A. Perdana 11-9, 11-4 and 11-8 before the winner in the individual event, Sanjay Singh Chal, put the result beyond their foe's reach after crushing Syauma Siswa with a 3-0 (11-2, 11-3 and 11-3) victory. For the record, Malaysia won both the men's and women's singles gold medals on Thursday. --BERNAMA