Vietnam has served a surprise by
confirming participation in both the men and women’s hockey competition in the
SEA Games to be held in Myanmar this December.
However their participation hit a
snag as they have yet to be affiliated to the Asian Hockey Federation.
But the matter is expected to be
resolved at the AHF Council meeting to be held in Ipoh on September 1st
as Vietnam will be admitted as interim member of the AHF to facilitate their
participation in the regional games.
A total of seven countries,
including Vietnam have confirmed participation in the hockey event that will be
contested in Yangon from December 11 to 20. The others are Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines,
Brunei, Indonesia and hosts Myanmar.
It is indded a pleasant surprise
that Vietnam are keen to participate in the SEA Games and everything is being
done to facilitate their participation, ” said AHF Secretary General Tan Sri
P.Alagendra.
“WE at AHF will extend all our
assistance in technical areas as well. However Vietnam will need to show us
their progress plans in order for us to approve their interim membership into
AHF.”
The participation of Vietnam is
seen as the first step towards forming a competitive team to play in the 2019
Asian games that they will host.
In addition this will boost the
developmemt of the sport and the Malaysian Hockey Federation could extend an invite
to them to play in the forthcoming Razak Cup to be held in Kuantan from
September 5-15.
Meanwhile Alagendra also revealed
that Hockey Australia had written in to the AHF for consideration to be invited
as a guest team for all Asian Indoor tournaments commencing 2014.
“This matter has been handed over
to the Indoor and Competition Committees for consideration and a decision is
expected at the Council meeting this Sunday,” added Alagendra.
