NATIONAL Under-16 coach Lim Chiow Chuan will pick 50 of the best players from the National Under-16 Hockey Championship, which starts on Friday, for training to prepare for the Razak Cup and the Four-Nation Invitational in Germany.

Chiow Chuan, a former international, said those selected will be called up for training just before the first leg qualifying round of the Razak Cup in April.

"My immediate task is to select at least 50 players from the Under-16 competition. These players will be groomed accordingly," said Chiow Chuan after the launch of the National Under-16 Championships at the KLHA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

For the Razak Cup, the national Under-16 team have been placed in the North Zone where they will face Penang, Kedah and Perlis in a home-and-away (April and May) qualifying round format before the tournament proper in July.

"The Razak Cup will give me the opportunity to select the best for the Four-Nation Invitational in Manheim, Germany," Chiow Chuan added.

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are the other teams competing in the Four-Nation on June 10-13.

Meanwhile, a total of 15 teams, including Singapore and debutants Police, will battle it out in the National Under-16 Championship at the KLHA Stadium.

Defending champions Kuala Lumpur have been drawn in Group A with Selangor, Johor, Malacca, Pahang, Police and Sabah while Group B comprises Perak, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Penang, Terengganu and Singapore.

One significant factor in this year's event is that the two coaches of the teams that contest in the final will be given the opportunity to join the National Under-16 team as attachment coaches.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

THE expected bunch sprint finish almost happened at the end of Stage One of the Jelajah Malaysia from Kota Iskandar to Bandar Penawar yesterday but Iran's Mehdi Sohrabi did just enough to ensure his lengthy breakaway attempt paid off when he bagged the opening victory of the race in style.

The 30-year-old Sohrabi of the Tabriz Petrochemical Team was part of the decisive breakaway attempt that started 60 kilometres from the finish of the 162.5km stage, on a day that had multiple attempts at denying the sprinters' teams their choice of a bunch sprint finish with many attacks breaking off the front of the peloton from the start.

The moment that defined how the finish would transpire happened after the peloton had passed the final of the three intermediate sprints at the 113.4km point in Kota Tinggi when groups of between 10 and 16 riders had multiple attempts at distancing themselves from the rest of the pack. Sohrabi had been active in this latter part of the race and had Estonian Mart Ojavee of the Champion System team alongside as he charted a possible victory.

"Entering the final kilometres, I saw the peloton was closing in and the finish line was already visible. That last few hundred metres, I just decided to look down and sprint all the way. There was no other way for me but to just go for it," said Sohrabi, who took the TM yellow jersey as the overall leader and also held the lead in the Asian riders' classification.

A surging peloton almost gobbled Sohrabi up in the final 50 metres as a bunch sprint was already clearly lined up, but Sohrabi had enough to deny Ojavee the win while the peloton zoomed in with Terengganu-Pro Asia Cycling Team's Harrif Salleh taking third, just four seconds adrift of the lead duo.

Harrif also took the lead in the points classification, as teammate and favourite Anuar Manan reeled himself home in 10th spot, still within striking distance of the overall and points classification lead.

Sohrabi, however, distanced himself from talks of him taking the overall lead to the finish in Nilai on Sunday.

"There are many good riders in this race and with a flat route, I expect the lead to change everyday. In my team, we have a good sprinter, Boris Shpilevsky (of Russia) and maybe we can prepare a bunch sprint for him to take a victory in the coming stages as well," said Sohrabi, overall winner of the 2007 Jelajah Malaysia.

"It is still very open because my lead is only four seconds. I think even tomorrow (today) it won't be me in this yellow jersey anymore."

Today sees a 204.4km stage from Bandar Penawar to Kluang which will offer another chance for breakaways to succeed, given the unpredictable nature provided by the sheer size of the peloton that are made up of 30 six-man teams.

Yesterday already claimed 18 riders, who dropped out either from crashes or from having made the finish line beyond the time limit.

STAGE 1 (162.5km from Kota Iskandar to Bandar Penawar): 1 Mehdi Sohrabi (Irn) Tabriz Petrochemical 3:39.34s, 2 Mart Ojavee (Est) Champion System 3:39.36s, 3 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia 3:39.38s, 4 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) Genesys Wealth Advisors, 5 Sergey Kudentsov (Rus) Polygon-Sweet Nice, 6 Boris Shpilevsky (Rus) Tabriz Petrochemical, 7 Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre) SP Tableware, 8 Hossein Nateghi (Irn) Vali-ASR Kerman, 9 Rico Rogers (NZ) Giant-Kenda, 10 Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia (all same time).

General classification (TM yellow jersey): 1 Mehdi Sohrabi (Irn) Tabriz Petrochemical 3:39.34s, 2 Mart Ojavee (Est) Champion System +06s, 3 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia +08s, 4 Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia +11s, 5 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team +11s.

Points classification (Milo green jersey): 1 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia 16 points, 2 Mehdi Sohrabi (Mas) Tabriz Petrochemical 15, 3 Mart Ojavee (Est) Champion System 14, 4 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) Genesys Wealth Advisors 12, 5 Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia 11.

Mountains classification (Genting red jersey): 1 Mark John Lexer Galedo (Phi) 7-Eleven 4 points, 2 Daniel Westahelmann (Ger) Eddy Merckx-Indeland 4, 3 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team 2, 4 Patrick Shaw (Aus) Genesys Wealth Advisers 2, 5 Shinpei Fukuda (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team 1.

Asian riders' classification (Naza blue jersey): 1 Mehdi Sohrabi (Irn) Tabriz Petrochemical 3:39.24s, 2 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia +08s, 3 Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia +11s, 4 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team +11s, 5 Shinpei Fukuda (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team +11s;

Malaysian riders classification (100Plus white jersey): 1 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia 3:39.32s, 2 Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu-Pro Asia +03s, 3 Ahmad Fakhrullah Alias (Mas) Malaysia +06s, 4 Adiq Husainie Othman (Mas) Malaysia +06s, 5 Wan Mohd Najmee Wan Mohamed (Mas) Kuala Lumpur +06s.

Teams classification: 1 Tabriz Petrochemical (Irn) 10:58.50s, 2 Champion System (HK) +02s, 3 Malaysia +04s, 4 Police +04s, 5 Armed Forces +04s.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.