KUALA LUMPUR: Kirandeep Kaur,15, will become the youngest hockey player in Malaysia to play in the Asian Games, thanks to revolutionary national women’s coach K. Dharmaraj.
There were many obstacles in her way in gaining a spot in Dharmaraj’s final-18.
An appeal had to be made to include her in the provisional Asian Games list .
Kirandeep was only called up for training by Dharmaraj in May before the Form Three student of SMK Bukit Bandaraya in Bangsar was included in the team for the World Series in Singapore the following month.
She played in all six matches and scored a goal in the 6-0 win over Thailand in the final.
The Kuala Lumpur-born was also selected for the team’s playing tour in Brisbane where she also found the net as Malaysia won three and drew two matches against New South Wales.
Her inclusion was made possible thanks to the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) who appealed to the Olympic Council of Malaysia last week to get Kirandeep into the provisional list.
And as a result, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) agreed to grant her an accreditation on Wednesday.
She will not only be the youngest Malaysian women, but also the youngest among the men to represent the country in the Asian Games’ hockey event. She turned 15 during the Brisbane tour.
It is also a huge personal victory for Kirandeep as in March, she did not even get to play in the National Under-16 Championships due to reasons only known by the concerned parties.
MHC are expected to finalise the men and women’s Asian Games squads on Thursday.