Muscat, Jan 29
The Oman Hockey Association made massive efforts to deliver Women’s Asia Cup 2022 on a successful note and were elated after its completion.
The appreciation from the top officials of International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) was delivered to the organising committee headed by Dr Marwan Juma al Juma, chariman of Oman Hockey Association (OHA) on the successful organisation of the Asian event.
The seven days event concluded in Muscat on Friday night and the Japan team lifted the title of the championship after edging South Korea team 4-2 in the final. The triumph was the third title for the Japanese women’s team in their history.
The chairman of OHA, Dr. Marwan said after the concluding ceremony that the tournament was successful in all the levels including technical and logistics.
“Definitely, there are strength and weakness points from hosting this top Asian event. We will work hard to develop the weakness area. This event was a rehearsal ahead of hosting the World 5s Hockey Championship in 2024. The Asian championship was the top event as four teams from the Asian continent advanced to the FIH World Women Hockey championship in summer,” he added.
The OHA chief pointed out that the Asian championship helped to strengthen the relationship with the other national hockey federations.
“We will work closely with many federations to develop the women’s hockey sport in the Sultanate of Oman. Initially, we may have a common training center with China. Also, we will work with Indonesia and Malaysian federations in this side. The championship was accompanied by a training course in technical coaching and umpiring field. We are aiming to have many new women coaches and umpires in the near future. We need more women technical coaches and referees to begin with Oman women league soon,” he ended
Keep fighting
The head coach of Japan team, Jude Menezes, expressed his joy on lifting the title of the Asian championship. “We managed to finish the tournament unbeaten. The team showed high performance during all the matches in group stage and final stages. We kept improving in every game. The 10-days camp in Muscat ahead of the tournament helped us a lot to show strong performance in the tournament. “ he added.
The former India goalkeeper commented on South Korea leading in the match: ”Hockey is a long game and lasted for more than 60 minutes and we knew we had to keep fighting until we managed to win the fixture,” he concluded
Tough tourney
Japan player, Shihori Oikawa, said that the tournament was hard as they played against strong teams including India and China and Korea. “We played every team with different tactics and managed to beat the opponents. Also, all the players were focused and this is one of the factors for winning all the games. I am proud of my team-mates for their top show in all the games,” she said
She concluded her statement with a special thanks to Oman and the organising committee for hosting this successful tournament.
