Sports

Tuesday October 17, 2006

Project 2009 squad for Aussie meet

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will be represented by the Project 2009 squad in the hockey event of the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, which will be held in Sydney from Jan 17-21.

The Festival is for Under-20 athletes and it features 16 sports.

Besides men's hockey, Malaysia will compete in badminton, cycling (track), diving and gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic).

The other sports in the programme are athletics, canoeing, football, rowing, sailing, shooting, skating, short track (winter sport), swimming, table tennis and taekwondo.

The MHF vice-president, Datuk Dr S.S. Cheema is the chef-de-mission of the Malaysian contingent.

The Festival has been held thrice before and it will be the first time that Malaysians have been invited to compete in it.

“This is a totally new thing for us. It is like a mini Olympics for the Australians. They are using it to begin their preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said Dr Cheema.

“It will be a good experience for our athletes. It will provide a good platform for our juniors to test their strength against some very good opposition.”

National junior hockey coach Sarjit Singh is excited over the prospect of his team playing in the Festival and the players will begin training on Dec 3 after the SPM examinations.

“We will have a team at full strength for the tournament. Since I took over in December last year, I have not been able to get the full team for one reason or another. But there is no other distraction for the players this time,” he said.

The men's hockey tournament is a four-nation affair and the opponents are Australia, China and Britain.

In men's and women's team and individual badminton, Malaysian shuttlers are in the fray with those from China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Fiji and Britain.

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