The 60th Council Meeting of the AHF will be held on 24th March 2012 at the Concorde
Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Record confirmations received for Men’s AHF Cup

A record 10 entries have been received from member countries. The tournament will
be held from 16 to 24 April 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand and will serve as a qualifying
tournament for the Men’s Asia Cup to be held in 2013.

The confirmations were received from:

Bangladesh, Chinese-Taipei, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Oman, Qatar, Singapore,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

The teams will be divided into two pools based on world ranking. The top two teams will
qualify for the Asia Cup 2013.

The Coach Educators who have qualified will now assist the FIH accredited coaches to run Level One Coaching Courses all over Asia, especially amongst newly emerging hockey nation in Asia.  The Level One Coaches are expected to develop hockey at the grassroots in their own country.

“It is not possible to serve the whole of Asia by running one or two courses a year at the academy.  That is why we have trained Coach Educators who can now go the various countries and train large number of coaches for local use”, said Tan Sri P. Alagendra, the AHF Secretary General.

The largest group of participants came from Sri Lanka which had 16 men and 4 women at the course.  Most of them had to find their own sponsorship or paid their own way to attend the course.  The AHF believes that Sri Lanka will soon become active in all International Hockey Tournaments.

“The commitment and passion shown by the Sri Lanka participants is truly amazing.  We looking forward to a new resurgence of hockey there”, said Dato’ Hj Abd Rahim, the Chairman of the Academy Committee and Member of the AHF Executive Council.

The Level One Coaching Course followed a new AHF Curriculum and Course content designed by a newly established Academy Curriculum Committee headed by the Malaysian Hockey legend Dato’ R. Yogeswaran.  The course was conducted by Curriculum designers Mr. Aloysius Lee, Mr. M.P. Haridas and two FIH Coaches Mr. Tahir Zaman and Mr. Lim Chow Chuan. Throughout the AHF Level One Coaching Course duration, Dato’ Tayyab Ikram, Secretary FIH High Performance and Coaching was present and provided his technical expertise.

In the closing ceremony of the course, HRH Sultan Azlan Shah also presented hockey sticks to the Hockey Association of Mongolia which were sponsored by AHF.   

Scoring 3 goals in each half the Malaysian girls always in control of the game. The SEA Cup was organized by the AHF due to the absence of Hockey from the games schedule at the SEA Games in Indonesia.

Japan won the third Girls U18 Asia Cup in an exciting final played at the Queen Sirikit Stadium in Bangkok. Playing a more experienced Chinese team, the Japanese girls showed considerable resolve and tactical ability in controlling play for long periods and creating several chances. In the 58th minute their industry paid dividend when Minami Shimizu struck a fine pnealty corner to give them the lead. Not content with that reward, the continued to press forward and nearly scored again through Kei Sato. China struck back forcing 3 penalty corners in 5 minute spell, but where unable to find the equaliser. Japan ran down the clock to win their first U18 title.

India secured third place with a shock 2-0 win over defending champions Korea. Goals from Navjot Kaur and Anupa Barla gave the sub-continent girls a well deserved win.