KUALA LUMPUR: The national women's hockey team will be taking part in an Olympic qualifying tournament for the first time in Vancouver.
The National Sports Council (NSC) director of international preparations Ariffin Ghani said that the invitation from the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to play in the tournament scheduled for April 26-May 4 was based on the results of two major competitions last year - Commonwealth and also Asian Games.
“We finished fifth in the Doha Asiad and it was the first time we took part in the Games after an absence of 20 years. In the Commonwealth Games, Malaysia managed to beat South Africa in finishing sixth in an 11-team tournament,” he said.
In the latest world rankings, Malaysia are the fifth ranked Asian team behind China, Japan, South Korea and India.
The qualifiers offer only a ticket to the Beijing Olympics and Malaysia will be up against South Korea, Canada, Italy, Cuba and Ireland.
Meanwhile, the national women's team can look forward to playing in the SEA Games.
The Thai organisers had wanted to drop the competition from the programme but Ariffin said that they had not received official word on the issue and preparations are going on as usual.
“We will be up against Thailand and Singapore and we should have no problem winning the gold,” he said.
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