TALK about having a bad day! Nothing beats what national women’s indoor hockey coach K. Dharmaraj experienced en route to the New Clark City Airport for the Sea Games yesterday.
Firstly, on board his flight to the Philippines with the national men and women’s teams, he bumped into some “unexpected guests”.
The Indonesian men and women’s indoor hockey team, who are not supposed to be playing at the biennial Games, were on board the same flight as they wanted to go there and “try their luck”.
If that’s not bad enough, while the national teams had to squat on the airport floor for more than two hours waiting for their pick-up bus to arrive, the transport arrived promptly for Indonesia and they were whisked away to the Games Village in Subic.
“I’m shocked and lost for words. Confused as well.
“First, we were made to wait for two hours before our bus arrived, but that’s a small matter compared to the Indonesian one,” said Dharmaraj.
“Both their men and women’s teams suddenly appeared on our flight even though they are not on the official fixtures provided by the organisers to us long ago.
“When I asked the Indonesia manager, he said they are here to ‘try our luck and see if the organisers will allow us to compete’,” said Dharmaraj.
“This is madness,” said Dharmaraj, who must have been fuming watching the Indonesians boarding their bus quickly while the national teams were made to wait for a couple of hours.
For the record, Indonesia were silver medallists in the men and women’s events when the sport made its debut in the 2017 KL Games.
Malaysia won the men’s gold and women’s bronze.