Asia: Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 – DAY 1

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The tournament has been held since 1992 and serves as a qualification tournament for the Junior World Cup.

China are the defending champions winning the 2015 edition.

The 8^th edition of the Women’s Junior Asia Cup is set to take place in Kakamigahara, Japan.  The Cup will start on the 3rd of June and conclude on 11^th June 2023.

Ten junior national teams from around Asia will participate in this tournament. The contestants include India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan and Indonesia. For this Junior championship, there is an age appropriation in place which requires all the participating athletes to have born on or after 1 Jan 2002 making them 21 years old or less.

The top five teams India, China, Korea, Japan and Malaysia got an automatic qualification based on their world rankings; Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan and Indonesia won their qualification from the Women’s Junior AHF Cup held in Taldykorgan Kazakhstan in October 2022.

Top three teams from the title tournament will qualify to FIH Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup 2023.

“The Asian Junior Competitions aim to set a benchmark, creating a significant exposure and developmental opportunity for our young athletes in Asia. We aspire our youth to experience only the best.” said the President Asian Hockey Dato Fumio Ogura.

KOREA 5 VS CHINESE TAIPEI 1 (POOL A)

First match of the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 at Kawasaki Heavy Industries Hockey Stadium Kakamigahara in Japan where Korea who participated seven times in the past in this competition and Chinese Taipei who participated five times in the past and completed their sixth time in this 2023 edition.

The team coached by KIM Seong Eun started with extraordinary energy and scored a goal by CHOI Sara in the sixth minute of play.

The girls in red set the pace of the match with four more goals scored by PARK Mihyang,AN Sujin x2 and JEONG Saena.

Chinese Taipei on their side tried to block Korea’s advances but could not manage to stop this young and powerful team. In the 49th minute HUANG Yi-Chun was able to score for the blue team but could not reach the score.

The first three points in Pool A went to Korea, who hopes to win again against Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei awaits Malaysia both for Pool A.

The best player of the match was AN Sujin, scorer of the match of the day.

INDIA 22 VS UZBEKISTAN 0 (POOL A)

The second match of the day was between India, who participated in all the editions of this championship, but never won the first place, against Uzbekistan, which is now in its second participation in this tournament.

The supremacy of the Indian team was felt from the very first minute of the game, which in the first 3 minutes of play scored the first of the twenty-two goals scored in the match of the day.

The Indian goals were scored by Phalke Vaishnavi Vitthal x2, Khan Mumtaz x4, Annu x 6, Sunelita Toppo x2, Deepika Soreng x2, Chorsiya Manju, Deepika x4, Neelam.

The team led by SCHOPMAN Janneke showed what this experienced team is prepared for against the team led by MUTALAPOVA Liliya who returns to participate in this competition for the second time and wants to have contact with teams of this level so that her team can gain experience and pace of play.

With this victory India accumulates its first 3 points in search of another 3 points against Malaysia, while Uzbekistan will be looking for its first victory against Korea in Pool A.

The best player of the game was Annu who gave her team six goals, and this is only the first game.

 

CHINA 18 VS INDONESIA 0 (POOL B)

Another group that had a lot of adrenaline and game was Group B that had among its ranks China and Indonesia.

China has participated in all editions of this competition winning it no less than three times in the past with a long history, while Indonesia makes its debut in the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 looking to add experience and international exposure.

The players in red did not take long to score their first goal after 5 minutes to open the door that would give them 18 goals in total throughout the match, scored by ZHANG Dian, ZHANG Jing x 3, CAI Wenqian x 2, HAO Guoting , YANG Yiting , LI Jingyi x2, LIU Hui x 2, WEI Yuanmeng , LIANG Weizhi , NI Yanling x 2, HUANG Siting x2.

The team coached by YANG Huiping has a lot of experience in this kind of events and knows how to enter this kind of match, so they managed to score a lot of goals to position themselves in Pool B.

The girls coached by PRIBADI Yanuar, although they do not have so much experience in this kind of events, will try to give their best and learn from this experience for the growth of the junior national team.

The girls in white will go for their first victory in the next match against Japan, while the girls in red will try to extend the difference against Kazakhstan.

The best player of the match was Ni Yannin who scored two goals in today’s game.

 

JAPAN 23 VS HONG KONG CHINA 0 (POOL B)

To culminate the first day of this new edition, the most awaited match was played between the host of the tournament against Hong Kong China.

The local team is making its eighth participation, having achieved second place in the last edition, while HKC is making its debut and first appearance for its junior team.

The level of play of the locals was not surprising as they have a long history in this type of international tournaments and knew very well how to set up their game.

On the other hand, ARIFALI wanted to measure themselves in the best viable way against a tough opponent that they knew was going to be difficult to manage.

Japan managed to score twenty-three goals during the tournament, scored by WAKASA Mai x3, KAWAGUCHI Haruka, HIRAMITSU Ai x2, UENO Maho x3, SAITO Hanami, KONDO Wakana x2, SASAKI Risax2, KITAYAMA Mahiro, HAYASUKE Sana x2, MATSUNAMI Mei x3, OSHIMA Natsumi x2.

With a superior result for the red team managed to get their first three points, waiting to play against Indonesia, while Hong Kong China will seek to have a better result against Kazakhstan.

The best player of the match was the Japanese captain KAWAGUCHI Haruka who had an excellent game and managed to score her first goal in the tournament.