Hockey Olympic Qualifier: Amin out for a splash

While many have complained about the poor and slippery condition of the pitch in Kakamigahara, Japan, one man though is not bothered at all.

Defender Mohd Amin Rahim, who is one of the penalty corner flickers, said the venue for the Olympic qualifying tournament from April 5-13 would be ideal for penalty corner set pieces.

“It’s a fast pitch and that’s good for penalty corners. The ball will move very fast when it is pushed during penalty corners. The stopper will have ample time to stop the ball and this will give the penalty corner hitter or flicker time to execute his shot well,” Amin said in a telephone interview yesterday.



The 28-year-old Amin, who is the proud father of a 10-month-old boy, said that he had had three training sessions on the pitch since arriving in Japan on Monday and was comfortable with his penalty corner flicks.

“Even (defender S.) Kuhan feels that it’s a good pitch for penalty corners, which are important to win matches and we hope to deliver the goals,” said Amin, who has scored 40 goals in his career from 109 international caps.

Amin was the top scorer for Malaysia in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, scoring six goals en route to guiding the national team to the bronze medal.

Amin and Kuhan were dropped after Malaysia finished sixth in the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

However, they were recalled last December when the country’s top penalty corner flicker, Zulkifli Rejab, was ruled out for a year after injuring his knee last November.