19/06/2025

SPORTS THURSDAY | JUNE 19, 2025

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JDT legends bid farewell

RESULTS & STANDINGS

CLUB WORLD CUP Group E: River Plate 3 (Colidio 12, Driussi 48, Meza 73) Urawa Red Diamonds 1 (Matsuo 58-pen) , Monterrey 1 (Ramos 25) Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 42) . P W D L F A Pts River Plate 1 1 0 0 3 1 3 Monterrey 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 Inter Milan 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 Urawa Red 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 Group F: Fluminense 0 Borussia Dortmund 0, Ulsan HD 0 Mamelodi Sundowns 1 (Rayners 36) . P W D L F A Pts M. Sundowns 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 Dortmund 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 Fluminense 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 Ulsan Hyundai 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 CONCACAF GOLD CUP Curaçao 0 El Salvador 0, Canada 6 Honduras 0. SABAH FC have further bolstered their preparations ahead of the new Malaysian League season by signing three new import players, including New Zealand international Dane Ingham. The 26-year old defender has earned 11 caps with the All Whites and previously played for A League (Australia) club Newcastle Jets. “Although the weather was hot and humid during training, it was still enjoyable. I’m confident I’ll get along well with my teammates and I hope we can achieve success together,” he said in a post shared on Sabah FC’s official Facebook page. Also joining the Rhinos is 24-year-old Australian-born midfielder Dean Pelekanos, formerly of Western Sydney Wanderers. “I was completely soaked – the humidity is just as they say. But the training quality was excellent and I’m happy with the warm welcome from my teammates,” he said. Another new import is Bosnian striker Ajdin Mujagic, 27, who had an outstanding season with Croatian second division side NK BSK Bijelo Brdo, where he scored 15 goals last season. Meanwhile, the Rhinos have also announced the return of two local players – Badrul Affendy and Maxsius Musa. Badrul, a defender from Penampang, rejoins the team after a season with PDRM FC, while nippy forward Maxsius from Keningau returns to don the Sabah jersey, having last featured for the club in 2023. BAM unveils BAJC squad THE 2024 World Junior Championships doubles finalists Dania Sofea Zaidi and Low Zi Yu have been named in the Malaysian girls team for the upcoming Badminton Asia Junior Championships (BAJC), scheduled to take place in Solo, Indonesia from July 18-27. Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), in a statement yesterday, said the newly crowned Slovak Open champions will be joined by the pair of Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan and Nur Aina Maisarah Hatta, who finished as runners-up at the same tournament. “The girls’ team will also feature Lee Mun, Oo Shan Zi, Eng Ler Qi, Lim Zhi Shin, Nicole Tan and Nicole Chau,” the statement added. Meanwhile, in the boys’ category, Razeeq Danial Roslie returns to lead the squad alongside Ayu Fu Sheng, Kong Wei Xiang, Lim Boon Le, Datu Anif Datu Asrah, Loh Zi Heng, Zulwaqqarizal Ahmad, Damien Ling, Shazmir Shahrul and Tan Zhi Yang. In last year’s edition held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Malaysia secured one silver and three bronze medals. BRIEFS Rhinos beef up team

J OHOR DARUL TA’ZIM FC (JDT) stalwarts Safiq Rahim and Farizal Marlias have bid farewell to the club after years of dedication to the Southern Tigers. The club announced the duo’s departure via a tribute on its official Facebook page, recognising their years of commitment, leadership, and achievements that helped shape JDT into a dominant force in Malaysian and regional football. Safiq, 37, joined JDT in 2013 and has been instrumental in the team’s success, including captaining the side to the historic 2015 AFC Cup victory, the first time an East Asian club clinched the prestigious continental title. Over the course of 270 appearances, the attacking midfielder netted 59 goals and provided 68 assists, helping the club secure an impressive list

Safiq, Farizal part ways with Southern Tigers

players ahead of the 2025–2026 M-League season through a post on social media. Among those released were goalkeepers Farizal Marlias and Izham Tarmizi, as well as midfield legend Safiq Rahim. JDT also parted ways with seven foreign players, Jordi Amat, Jese Rodriguez, Murilo Henrique, Jonathan Viera, Alvaro Gonzalez, Roque Mesa, and Anselmo de Moraes, as the club looks to refresh its squad for the upcoming campaign. The eleventh departure is Ramadhan Saifullah, who has completed a permanent transfer to Kuching City FC, officially bringing his journey with the Southern Tigers to a close. – Bernama

of honours – nine Malaysia Super League titles, seven Charity Shields, four Malaysia Cups, four FA Cups, and one AFC Cup. Farizal, 38, who first donned the JDT jersey in 2015, on the other hand, established himself as one of the country’s finest goalkeepers, keeping 102 clean sheets in 222 appearances. His tenure saw him win 10 league titles, nine Charity Shields, five Malaysia Cups, four FA Cups and the historic AFC Cup in 2015. The Johor-born duo are widely regarded as legends, not only for their on-field success but also for their leadership and influence within the club. On Tuesday, JDT confirmed the release of 11

BERNAMAPIC

219/25

18/06/2025

2785 9078 1889

2959 9663 9865 4101 9163

2353 2453 4128 9806 3793

0629 2543 9403 1737 6876

4653 5676 6587 2842 4728

Farizal Marlias

Safiq Rahim

Malaysian Tigress fail to reach Nations Cup 2 semis

RM35,358,198.62

2785 + 9078 9078 + 2785 1889 + 2785

2785 + 1889 9078 + 1889 1889 + 9078

THE dream of the national women’s hockey squad of advancing to the semifinals of the 2024/25 Nations Cup 2 was dashed after suffering a second consecutive defeat in Group A match, losing 1-3 to South Africa, in Walcz, Poland on Tuesday. Malaysia, who started strongly with a field goal by Dayang Nuramirah Abang Mahadini in the 11th minute, failed to maintain the advantage when the opposing team equalised through a field goal by Ntsopa Mokoena, a minute before the end of the first half. South Africa needed only two minutes after the second half resumed to widen the gap when Onthatile Zulu scored a field goal before Hannah Pearce sealed their victory by converting a penalty corner in the 49th minute.

Through a video shared by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC), Malaysian Tigress head coach, Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim, remains proud of his team’s commitment and high discipline who managed to put pressure on South Africa to take the lead before a few mistakes opened the way for the 21st ranked team in the world to come back and defeat them. Mohd Nasihin hopes that his team, ranked 24th in the world, can provide fierce resistance in the final group match against Uruguay, today. The result saw Malaysia occupy the bottom position in Group A without any points while hosts Poland are at the top after collecting four points, followed by Uruguay also with four points and South Africa in third place with three points. – Bernama weeks, it now only takes a few minutes to complete. As part of long-term planning, she said KBS also aims to expand the initiative to the sports sector and athlete development, including former national athletes, through collaboration with the National Athletes Welfare Foundation (Yakeb), to give them an opportunity to learn new skills. “We have a lot of senior citizens and former athletes who are retired but can’t really move; they are at home. “And through initiatives like that, if we can reach out to all of them online and teach them this new skill, I am sure with their knowledge as a former athlete, maybe something good can come out of this,” she said. A total of 147 instructors participated in the two-day training physically and online. So far, 287 ILKBS instructors have benefited from the three previous training series conducted. Yeoh added that through this initiative, over 30,000 students are expected to benefit directly from the effort. – Bernama

RM1,921,845.70

5 8 9 1617252834

11 36

KBS empowering ILKBS trainers with AI THE Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) has taken a step forward in strengthening the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme by training instructors from the Youth and Sports Skills Training Institutes (ILKBS) to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

RM13,126,962.53

RM100,000.00

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said the two-day AI training, which began on Tuesday, was carried out in collaboration with the government and private companies – Microsoft and Biji-Biji Initiative dan Mereka Academy – without involving any costs. “So these ILKBS instructors will be the ones teaching our TVET students to learn new things. “Through this project, it was also found that instructors saved over 88.9% of their time in preparing teaching materials using AI, such as lesson plans and quizzes,” she told reporters after meeting participants of the Microsoft AI For My Future programme yesterday. Yeoh said participants also shared that preparing teaching materials has become significantly easier – where it used to take two

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