Six of the best for women captain Juliani

Mission accomplished: The women’s hockey team players celebrate after beating Thailand in the final.

JULIANI Mohd Din suffered an early scare before winning her sixth hockey gold medal by leading the women’s team to success at the Morodok Techo National Sports Complex.

The Thais shocked the Tigresses in the fourth minute through a field goal from Natthakarn Aunjai but Malaysia equalised when Siti Nur Arfah Mohd Nor scored through a penalty corner two minutes later.

With 37-year-old skipper Juliani working tirelessly in defence, her younger teammates pushed forward to give Malaysia a 4-1 win, for the country’s 34th - and final - gold.

Nuraini Abdul Rashid scored a penalty stroke in the 18th minute, while Nurmaizatul Hanim Syafi Shiek Fuad and Nur Afiqah Syahzani Azhar converted penalty corners in the 29th and 41st minutes to ensure the Malaysian women stayed as the best in the region.

Juliani won her first hockey gold in Korat 2007 but had to wait until Myanmar 2013 for the second as the sport was dropped in 2009 and 2011.

She also won in Singapore 2015 and Kuala Lumpur 2017 before adding an indoor hockey gold to her collection in Manila 2019. Field hockey wasn’t held in 2019.

“This is my sixth gold medal since 2007 and I am happy that I have continued to play until today,” said Juliani, who has 186 international caps.

“We won the last gold here for Malaysia and did not achieve our 40-gold target but it does not end here. All the athletes must keep trying. We can definitely do better in the next Games.

“Although we were down at the beginning of the game, we did not panic and stuck to our game plan and followed our coach’s (Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim) instructions,” said Juliani.

Nasihin said the dry field conditions made it hard for players to execute drag flicks from penalty corners but they still managed to adapt.

“Everything was under control even though we were down by an early goal. What was tougher was the humid conditions,” he said.

“Thailand are an experienced team but our players stayed in control throughout.”

Singapore and Indonesia shared bronze after finishing third and fourth respectively in the round robin.