Interview

20-05 Annabel Pennefather women hockey goes to hot Thailand

Interview Date : 2010-05-20

Interview By: Today online

Description :

The Singapore women's hockey team want to follow in the footsteps of their male counterparts by qualifying for this year's Asian Games, which will be held in Guangzhou from Nov 12 to 27 .

Despite the political strife in Bangkok, which will host the qualifying tournament from May 21 to 30, the team decided that they would take part and, led by coach Juanma Mas, arrived in the Thai capital yesterday.

Speaking to MediaCorp yesterday, Singapore Hockey Federation (SHF) president Annabel Pennefather said: "This was a difficult decision for us, the tournament has been fixed for a while now and the players have been training for this for the last year.

"They really wanted to go.

"After assurances from Thailand and the Asian Hockey Federation, as well as discussions with the players and their parents, we decided that we will send the girls, and we all will work together to make sure that everybody is as safe as possible."

According to team manager Tay Siu Hua, the team are safe.

She said: "We were escorted from the time we got off the plane to when we got to the hotel, and we are based more than an hour from where the trouble is.

"Life is going on as per normal here. I went out to buy water and some groceries for the girls earlier, and people were still out shopping and eating."

The eight-team women's qualifying tournament is scheduled to start tomorrow with the top five teams qualifying for Guangzhou.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have pulled out due to the trouble in the capital.

Singapore have targeted a top-three finish and were scheduled to face Sri Lanka in their opening game, but the updated fixtures were not yet released at press time last night.

The other teams contesting the qualifiers are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Thailand. SHAMIR OSMAN

Source Today online