KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia are not an indoor hockey playing nation, and their men's and women's teams came out short at the recent Cambodia Sea Games.
There were many factors involved in two targeted gold medals turning into silver as the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) tried their best to prepare their teams within one month.
This was revealed by MHC president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal after Indonesia won the men's gold and Thailand the women's gold in indoor hockey in Phnom Penh.
"We are basically a field hockey nation, and indoor is still an ad-hoc sport and slowly being promoted with various measures taken in recent times.
"For the Sea Games, we sent a men's team that had three army personnel as well as army coaches. They fell in the final three minutes of the match."
Malaysia led 3-0 against Indonesia before the latter levelled at 3-3, and the national team lost the shootout 2-1. Ironically, Malaysia had beaten Indonesia 3-2 in a pool match earlier.
"The women also did reasonably well to enter the final, and held a better prepared Thailand (0-0) before losing in the shootout 2-1 as well," said Subahan.
The army men, who were also at the end of their indoor hockey careers, had helped Malaysia in previous Sea Games.
Malaysia does not have dedicated indoor hockey courts, and for the Sea Games they trained and played at the UTC court in Sentul.
"The men's team were touted as favourites after winning the Indoor Asia Cup gold in Bangkok last year (Malaysia beat eight-time champions Iran).
"Back then, we had injected four field hockey national players into the Asia Cup squad, and they were more stable. But field hockey coach Arul (Selvaraj) had his own training plans and could not release his players for indoor, and so army men were roped in for the Sea Games," said Subahan.
The only national field hockey player in the indoor squad was Syed Syafiq Cholan.
For the record, Malaysia was the one who introduced indoor hockey to the Sea Games, and won the men's gold in 2017 and 2019.
The Malaysian women won the 2019 indoor gold. And Thailand's women won the 2017 gold, and the title this year.