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Sunday November 22, 2009

Veteran Amin has unfinished business

By AFTAR SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: Penalty corner specialist Mohd Amin Rahim will turn 30 on Jan 31. But the Kuala Lumpur defender has no intention to quit, just yet.

Amin, who has represented the national team for a decade, felt that he could still play good hockey for Malaysia for another three years.

“I am still in good shape and can play hockey as well if not better than the younger players in the team,” said Amin, who has 157 international caps to his credit.

“I believe my services are still needed by the national team. I am still the number one penalty corner flicker in the country.”

Amin made his international debut in the 1999 Brunei SEA Games but he has yet to see action in the World Cup and Olympics.

“I was dropped from the team for the 2002 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur and was looking forward to playing in the next Games in Athens. But we failed to qualify,” said the father of two children.

Malaysia also failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and 2008 Beijing Olympics. And recently, they failed to make the cut for the World Cup in New Delhi next year.

“I am disappointed that in two Olympic qualifiers (Madrid in 2004 and Japan in 2008) and two World Cup qualifiers (China in 2006 and the recent one in Invercargill, New Zealand) in which I played in, we failed to make the grade,” he said.

“We came so close to beating New Zealand to a place in the World Cup Finals next year. We blew a 1-0 lead with just 13 minutes to go in the final.

“Now we had to wait until 2012 to qualify for the London Olympics. I will continue playing to help Malaysia qualify and I hope we make it before I decide to retire.”

Amin was a member of the team who won bronze medals in the 2002 Busan Asiad and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

He has a silver to show from the 2007 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament in Ipoh and a bronze medal from the 2007 Asia Cup in Chennai.

The next competition for Amin is the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) Premier Division, which begins on Dec 4. He will feature for Tenaga Nasional.

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