Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Women finish campaign

FT women ended their campaign in the kabaddi competition at the SUKMA with a 41-22 win over Penang.

The FT girls led 22-11 in the first half, but failed to show much urgency in the game, having already failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

Penang, to its credit played with confidence but lacked in experience to seriously challenge FT.

Like FT, Penang are also out of the semi-finals but will finish ahead of wooden spoonist Pahang in the group.

Friday, June 11, 2010

No medal for women

FT girls failed in their bid to gain a medal after losing 25-31 to Kedah in a crucial group match today.

Silly mistakes in the early stages of the first game, saw Kedah gaining advantage over the city girls.

Kedah led 22-15, mostly on poor positioning play by FT.

FT put on a better display in the second half, containing the Kedah defence for much of the game. They had whittled down Kedah's lead to just three points at one stage but in their eagerness to chase the points, their raiders made numerous mistakes during the crucial stages and bowed out of the game.

FT play their final group match against Penang and would hope to finish third in the group at best.

Kedah will join Selangor in the semi-finals from the group.

On the verge

The FT kabaddi men's team are just a win away from qualifying for the semi-finals of the competition at the 2010 SUKMA.

The city boys eased past Pahang 73-26 for their third consecutive win today after leading 44-13 in the first half.

Tomorrow the team faces Negri Sembilan in a crucial match that would decide the fate of both teams.

Negri Sembilan, having lost to Selangor in their opening match, face a do-or-die battle against FT. Anything less than a win would see their campaign in the competition coming to an end.

FT play NS in the morning and face unbeaten Selangor in the evening. While a win would confirm FT's semi-final berth, a loss would throw the competition wide open.

FT's fate would than hang on their match against Selangor in the evening.

DAY TWO RESULTS

Men
Group A: Negri Sembilan beat Sarawak 46-29, FT bt Pahang 73-26, Selangor bt Sarawak 53-15
Group B: Kedah bt Johor 82-38, Melaka bt Perlis 52-48

Girls
Group A: Johor bt Negri Sembilan 35-31, Johor bt Perlis 37-29, Sarawak bt Melaka 69-23,
Group B: Selangor bt Penang 51-20, Kedah bt FT 31-25

Penang denied win

A costly mistake by the match officials cost Penang a much anticipated win over hosts Melaka in the men's kabaddi competition.

Both teams were locked at 44-44 with one minute of regulation time but the Penang raider was denied the chance to pick up the all important winning point.

First, the Penang raider was stopped from going into Melaka's court by the referee as he wanted to sort out some technical problems.

As the raider waited for his chance to go for an attack, the match umpire blew the whistle to mark the end of the match with more than one minute remaining.

Penang lost the chance of getting a lona as Melaka was left with only player at that point of time.

Questions are being raised with the decision of the match officials and their neutrality.

The Melaka team is made up of import players from Selangor and one of the two referees of the match also happened to be the coach of the players in Selangor.

Better performance

The Federal Territory men's team put on a much better show in their win over Terengganu at the Batu Berendam Stadium.

Playing with a changed line-up, the team romped to a 68-28 win over the East Coast state.

The FT team led 44-11 in the first half and could have won with a higher margin had they not let the throttle off.

With two wins from two matches, FT are on second spot in Group A behind Selangor, who lead the table on a better attacking differential.

The FT side play Pahang tomorrow in a match they are expected to win. The crucial match for the FT team would be against Negri Sembilan on Sunday. A win over the Negri side would seal a semi-final berth.

Afternoon Results Day One

Women
Group A: Sarawak bt Perlis 80-30, Perak bt Melaka 59-34
Group B: Federal Territory beat Pahang 76-30, Selangor bt Kedah 31-27, Kedah bt Pahang 39-17

Men
Group A; Selangor bt Pahang 62-18
Group B: Perak bt Johor 38-35, Kedah bt Melaka 60-39, Perlis bt Perak 44-41

Women bounce back

The Federal Territory women bounced back from their lost to Selangor in the morning, to carve out an emphatic 76-30 win over a hapless Pahang at the Batu Berendam Sports Complex.

FT, who must win all their remaining matches in the group to qualify for the semi-finals, led 44-11 in the first half.

The team should have won by triple digits but were complacent in the second half and did not produce the intensity of the first half.

Despite the win, the FT team still has a lot of work to do in their remaining matches.

The team has a rest day tomorrow and will play Kedah and Penang on Sunday.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Selangor dominant

A physically stronger Selangor sounded their gold medal winning intentions in the men's kabaddi event at the SUKMA in Melaka with a well earned 50-30 win over Negri Sembilan.

The NS team, despite being the more skillful side, were unable to cope with the phsyical game displayed by the Selangor team.

The win has certainly brightened the hopes of Selangor qualifying for the semi-finals. The two semi-final berth in the group were expected to be strongly challenged by Selangor, NS and defending champions Federal Territory.

With the loss to Selangor, NS must now beat FT when the two teams square off against each other on Sunday.

In another Group B match Perlis beat Penang 44-36. The Perlis side made up of predominantly import players from Perak, put on a better display in the closing stages to take the match.

MORNING SESSION RESULTS

Boys
Group A: Terengganu bt Pahang 55-51; Selangor bt Negri Sembilan 50-30; Federal Territory bt Sarawak 41-26
Group B: Perlis bt Penang 44-36



Girls
Group A: Perak bt Sarawak 29-23; Negri Sembilan bt Perlis 51-38; Johor bt Melaka 44-14
Group B: Selangor bt Federal Territory 45-16; Kedah bt Penang 47-28

FT struggle past Sarawak

The Federal Territory men's kabaddi team made heavy weather of their opening match at the SUKMA in Melaka.

FT struggled for much of the game despite picking up a 41-26 win over Sarawak.

Sarawak showed scant respect to the FT side and dictated the match during the early stages and were even leading 7-5 at one stage.

However, their lack of experienced allowed FT back into the game slowly. FT's success in the match was mainly because of their better defence and experience.

FT led 22-13 in the first half with a lona. The second half was also a struggle for the FT side, who gave away easy points on offence.

The city boys need to pick up the pace in the coming matches if they harbour any hopes of making it to the semi-finals.

Opening loss


An out of sorts Federal Territory team lost 16-45 to neighbours Selangor in their opening women's kabaddi match at the SUKMA in Melaka.

FT trailed 11-31 in the first half and never really got their game going in the match between the two group favourites.

The win established Selangor's credentials as the team to beat in the competition.

FT needs to win all their remaining matches Negri Sembilan, Sarawak, Pahang and Terengganu to qualify for the knockout stages.

The match between the two teams was expected to be a closely fought battle and in the opening minutes it certainly looked like it with both teams exchanging the early blows.

But the more aggressive Selangor side played with more urgency to take control of the game. FT, meanwhile were a bundle of nerves and after conceding the first lona were completely outplayed.

FT Players during training

Monday, June 7, 2010

FT kabaddi squad get chance to enter record books

Courtesy of The Star

KABADDI will make its debut as a medal sport in Sukma and Federal Territory (FT) aim to become the inaugural champions.

The FT men picked up the gold when kabaddi was introduced as a demonstration sport at the last Games in Terengganu two years ago.

This time, FT want to return home with not only the men’s champions but also the winners of the women’s competition.

Victorious: The FT’s kabaddi team emerged champions in Terengganu when it was a demonstration sport two years ago.

Despite missing several first-choice players, the city team believe that they have the depth to take on their rivals.

Three players who were members of the teams for the Games in Terengganu are expected to be named in the final men’s squad. They are P. Dharmendra, C. Vinod and B. Kartigeyan.

“The rest will be making their debut in Sukma but that is not a major setback for us,” said coach R. Balamurugan, who captained the Malaysian team to the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

He said that all the players featured in the KL International Inter-City Championships (IICKC) in March, representing Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

“The experience of playing against top foreign players in March will come in handy,” said Balamurugan, who had also coached the national women’s team to the Asian championships two year ago.

The team from Kuala Lumpur finished runners-up to Chennai at the IICKC.

“We have a strong all-round team with a balanced offensive and defensive game. If they play their normal game, they will be a difficult team to beat,” said Balamurugan.

However, he was cautious of the other teams, especially Negri Sembilan and Selangor, who have also been undergoing intensive training for the Games.

Based on recent performance, FT, Negri and Selangor are strong contenders for the men’s title but they have been drawn in the same group.

Selangor women in training

Courtesy of The STAR

Building muscles: The Selangor women kabaddi players doing some weight training at the MSNS gymnasium.

Sarawak’s kabaddi teams aim for good placing at Sukma

Courtesy of The Star

SARAWAK’s kabaddi teams are setting practical goals for the Malaysian Games (Sukma) that will take place in Malacca next week.

Coach Wamamna Muniandy said they aimed for third or fourth placing for the girls team and to make it to the quarter finals for the boys.

Tiring sport: The boys team training for the Sukma.

He said these targets were decided upon based on the group matches in which the Sarawak boys were underdogs compared to the teams from Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negri Sembilan during the preliminary rounds.

The girl’s team stood a better chance as they were placed in group A where they will meet Perak, Perlis and Malacca.

“This is the first time our kabaddi team is playing in a serious competition whereas the other states have been exposed to several other competitions in the past.

“What we lack here are friendly matches. Since kabaddi is very new to Sarawak, we need exposure to pick up on the different techniques and tactics,” he said.

Wamamna, a Sarawakian who has two years experience playing kabaddi with the Selangor team, expects the state team to pick up in strength in the next two years with intensive training and more meets with other teams.

As preparation, he said he made the players watch footage of kabaddi games played at the Asian Games 2006 and run through various strategies and tactics.

“In Kabaddi, each players needs to be good as they all have to take turns in playing the raider instead of just being in the defence,” he said.

He said the game, which requires great stamina, would require the boys to play non-stop for 20 minutes each in the two halves while for the girls it was 15 minutes in each half.

Nevertheless, he believed the teams would pick up soon, given the discipline and passion shown by the players.

The teams comprising 10 players each, all aged under 23 years, will leave for Malacca on June 6.

This is the first time that kabaddi is an event in Sukma.

Malacca eyes kabaddi medal

Courtesy of The Star

MALACCA: Positive results from numerous friendly matches and the recent President’s Cup National Kabaddi Championships in Negri Sembilan have made Malacca confident of picking up at least a bronze medal at the Sukma in June.

The ancient indigenous Indian sport of kabaddi, which was only played along formalised lines all over the sub-continent and parts of south Asia since the early 1930s, is set to make its debut at the games in Malacca.

Kabaddi Association of Malacca president M. Tirunavokarasan said the state squad of 15 players had been in centralised training since late last year for the upcoming biennial national games.

With limited training period and its first major exposure at a national meet, Malacca performed credibly at the President’s Cup championships to make it into the semi-finals and subsequently collecting the bronze medal. On its way to third placing, Malacca beat Johor 67-41 and Penang 66-25 but lost to Perak 37-69 in the preliminary round matches.

Malacca bowed out to the more experienced Kedah in the last four and clinched the bronze based on better points average over Selangor. Hosts Negri beat Perak 67-23 to win the men’s honours while Selangor defeated Kedah 18-9 in the women’s final.

WELCOME



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