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26 June 2011 THE NEW PAPER ON SUNDAY ●
Sports
Hockey U-18 Asia Cup ALL OUT: (From far left) Singapore’s Zulfadli Jasni Ismail and Nur Ashriq Ferdaus Zul’kepli (in red) giving their all against Malaysia. (Below) Nur Ashriq slumps as the full-time horn rings. TNP PICTURES: GARY GOH
Singapore give M’sia a good run SEMI-FINAL
SINGAPORE 1 (Nur Ashriq Ferdaus Zul’kepli 69)
MALAYSIA 2 (Fitri Saari 10, Haziq Samsul 51) DILENJIT SINGH dilen@sph.com.sg
A
S THE full-time horn rang out at Sengkang Hockey Stadium yesterday, Nur Ashriq Ferdaus Zul’kepli slumped, hands on his knees, face staring at the ground in disappointment. If only we had more time, he must have been thinking. Just a minute earlier, he finished a Jaspal Singh Grewal cut-back from the right with finesse to pull Singapore within one goal of Malaysia in the second semi-final of the Boys Under-18 Asia Cup. A minute before that, Malaysian goalkeeper Mohd Hazrrul Faiz Ahmad Sobri had pulled off an excellent save with his stick to deflect another Nur Ashriq shot agonisingly over the bar. Malaysian captain Mohd Fitri Saari said after the match that he thought his goalkeeper had saved a certain goal from the Singapore captain. And it helped his side edge out Singapore 2-1 to advance to today’s final. They will play South Korea, who downed defending champions Pakistan 2-1 in the other semi-final. Said Fitri: “When I got the yellow card and Singapore scored, I was afraid (it would go to a) golden goal. Singapore have improved so much.” Despite the improvement, the hosts just fell short of upsetting their Causeway rivals who, as Malaysia coach K. Gobinathan put it, had an “off day”. Said Gobinathan: “So many of the fellas
forgot how to play hockey today. “I’m relieved with the result... we didn’t play well, we missed too many sitters. Singapore played well, their motivation to play was great.” In truth, both teams didn’t have their best game of the tournament, with Malaysian players twice missing glorious one-on-one chances to add to the strikes from Saari and Muhd Haziq Samsul (penalty corner). Singapore played with great heart but were nowhere as refined in terms of their trapping and passing as earlier in the tournament. Singapore coach Solomon Casoojee didn’t fault them for that. He cited the injuries many of his players were carrying such as Silas Abdul Razak Noor Shah’s shoulder problem and Zulfadli Jasni Ismail’s stitched-up shin.
Broken He said: “They have tired legs and broken bodies... A lot of teams wouldn’t have taken to the field in that condition. “In the circumstances they fared well. It’s not easy to play with that much pain flowing through your body. It begins to play on your mind and affects your motor skills and execution.” He did however concede that his team had missed a “a golden opportunity to seize a place in the final”. Not that the boys are moping after squandering their final chance. Singapore’s Karleef Sasi Abdullah told The New Paper his team were raring to go against Pakistan in the third place play-off today. He said: “I’m very happy because we played well, but quite disappointed also because we could have taken Malaysia. “We’re ready for Pakistan. We’ll fight to the final whistle.”
OTHER RESULTS
TODAY
SEMI-FINAL Pakistan 1 (Waseem Abbas 24) South Korea 2 (Hwang Weon Ki 48, Kim Ji Woon 65)
FIFTH-PLACE PLAY-OFF 3pm: Taiwan v China (Pitch 2)
7TH PLACE PLAY-OFF Brunei 0 Sri Lanka 5
FINAL 6pm: South Korea v Malaysia (Pitch 1)
THIRD-PLACE PLAY-OFF 3.30pm: Singapore v Pakistan (Pitch 1)
■ All games at the Sengkang Hockey Stadium. For ticket details, call 6479-3466.
SWIMMING
Two meet records broken
TWO MEET records fell at the Singapore National Swimming Championship at the Singapore Sports School yesterday. Cheryl Lim of the Chinese Swimming Club Singapore’s 2min 37.87sec in the women’s 200m breaststroke beat the previous mark set by Louisa Yeo. In the men’s 800m freestyle relay, the quartet of Jeremy Kevin Mathews, Arren Quek, Zach Ong and Danny Yeo of the Aquatic Performance Swim Club set a new meet mark of 7:42.67. – DILENJIT SINGH