National Women’s Squad Timba Useful Experience In Wujin, China

The experience of playing in eight matches at the International Invitational Championships held at the Wujin Hockey Training Centre, Jiangsu Province, China, will definitely be a pretty useful supply for the National Women’s Hockey Squad ahead of the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia which will open the curtain on May 5 to 17, 2023.

Although the national team lost all matches, the Head Coach of the National Women’s Squad, Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim, explained that the decision did not affect or demonstrate the true strength of the national team which is still in the final preparation phase to retain the SEA Games gold medal won in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur.

Nasihin Nubli added that the opportunity to play with Elite Clubs such as Sony HC Bravia Japan which is a former Japanese League Champion as well as LiaoNing Team and JiangSu Team which lined up former national players, players in the national training squad as well as national youth players, helped him and the coaching team prepare the team ahead of the bi-annual Games.

“We not only look at the results from this tournament alone, but we see from a positive point of view where we are playing with a strong team and the strength of the opposing team also helps us a lot to further diversify the game strategy ahead of the SEA Games.

“This tournament is also not only testing the physical strength of the players but their mentality as the players have to play a few matches early in fasting conditions as well as cold weather conditions as well as having to adapt to a very tight schedule of matches.

“Overall, the players have shown improvement from one match to the final and have performed well.

“Other coaching facilities such as Coach Lailin Abu Hassan and Coach Siti Rahmah Othman, have helped a lot in the recovery process of players from one match to another, in addition to the Team Manager, Puan Rogayah Mohamad, also acted to assist in raising the morale of the players to stay in the spirit of the tournament.

“After this, the players will be given a break before the training session resumes on 2 May and there are various aspects that will be given focus starting with food care because as all are aware, the players have yet to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families yet.

“In addition, the fitness level of the players should also be ensured to be at the best level as the opportunity of a few days before going to Cambodia will be fully utilized to improve and sharpen all the weaknesses and shortcomings of the team,” he explained.

Here are the full results of the National Women’s Team match at the International Invitational Championship held at Wujin Hockey Training Center, Jiangsu Province, China.