Coach keen to keep progressing in quadrant after Asian Cup victory
KUALA LUMPUR: National sepak takraw quadrant coach Zulkarnain Mohamed Arif is determined to keep his charges improving after winning the Asian Cup title at the Titiwangsa Stadium yesterday (May 12).
Zulkarnain said Malaysia is still learning the ropes in the relatively new quadrant event - which features four players a side - and has weaknesses in certain areas which must be improved on.
He stressed that his charges cannot afford to be complacent, especially with the Thai King's Cup (July) and the Thailand Sea Games (December) still left to play this year.
"We are still finding our rhythm in the quadrant and have to keep working on improving ourselves. Our serving and our double and triple blocking techniques are still relatively weak," said Zulkarnain yesterday.
"We are expecting Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar to be our main rivals at the King's Cup and the Sea Games. We know they are very strong sides so we have to be prepared."
Zulkarnain believes Malaysian players have a lot of potential in the quadrant event.
"The quadrant event is still new to us and we have been trying out many new strategies," he said.
"Our progress has been positive so far this year and we have a lot of players who are capable of performing well in this discipline. We will select the most suitable players according to the situation during the tournament."
Afifuddin Razali, Amirul Zazwan Amir, Norfaizzul Abd Razak and Shahalril Aiman Halim defeated Japan's Wataru Narawa, Toshinaka Naito, Yuki Sato and Ryota Haruhara 15-8, 15-11 in the Asian Cup quadrant final yesterday.
Malaysia's Noraizat Mohd Nordin and Aidil Aiman Azwawi, however, lost to Thailand (Boonkoom Tipwong-Sirisak Anuloon) 7-15, 15-10, 15-12 in the doubles final which was also played yesterday.
National doubles coach Aswadi Abdullah said Thai's versatile players gave them the winning edge in the match.
"Thailand's players are able to play in a variety of positions. They are equally adept as a tekong, feeder or a killer. This is what makes them strong," said Aswadi.
"We don't have many players capable of doing that yet. We have been slow (to develop such players) as we do not have that many doubles tournaments here in Malaysia yet."
Aswadi said he was nevertheless pleased with the fighting spirit shown by his players throughout the tournament.
The Asian Cup has now moved into the regu event which begins with the group stage today.
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