I will always cherish that memorable October of 1991 where the 1992 Barcelona Olympics qualifier was held in Auckland.
This was when Malaysia qualified after four straight wins in Group B with a game to spare. For the record, the top four teams made it to the Spanish city.
The others in this group were India, Belgium, France, the United States and Switzerland. Group A comprised hosts New Zealand, Soviet Union, Canada, Italy, Ireland and Japan.
The Malaysian squad of 16 in Auckland read: Ahmad Fadzil Zainal Abidin, Paul Lopez, Tai Beng Hai, K. Embaraj, Gary Fidelis, K. Dharma Raj, Sarjit Singh, Soon Mustafa Karim, Lim Chiow Chuan, R. Shankar, Mohamad Abdul Hadi, Nor Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin, St John Davies, M.A.Sambu, Charles Aitken David and me.
Australian legendary forward, Terry Walsh, was the coach with the late Datuk Ho Koh Chye as manager and Stephen van Huizen as assistant coach.
Malaysia won the first four group matches by beating France 3-1, Switzerland 4-3, United States 9-0 and India 3-2 to make the semi-finals, thus a place for Barcelona.
The Malaysians beat Belgium 5-3 in the final match which meant Malaysia did not drop a point in the group stages.
This success was special and one to be proud of – where everyone, including team officials, played a big part. Everyone worked hard for this.
And my dream of playing in an Olympics, as I had mentioned in my previous two columns, was fulfilled.
Malaysia's traditional rivals India, for that matter, were grateful to us as well for beating Belgium in the last group match. They would have been out if we had lost.
Malaysia might have already qualified after the fourth match but this did not mean we would take things easy against the Belgians.
It had always been our aim to win every match we played – we kept that professional aspect intact. And we qualified for Barcelona in style with the Indians relieved they were not shown the exit.
Malaysia was beaten 6-2 by a strong Soviet Union side in the semi-final. The Soviets emerged champions by upstaging India 1-0 in the final.
The Indians had earlier beaten New Zealand 4-3 on strokes in the other semi-final after the teams were tied at 2-2 during extra time. Malaysia went down 2-1 to New Zealand in the third and fourth classification match.
Earlier, we had this belief that we would qualify but not in this manner where we had this superb 100 per cent record in the preliminary round.
There was pressure as all eyes were on us after Malaysia's failure to qualify for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. The first time Malaysia had failed to make an appearance at an Olympics since making their debut in 1956 in Melbourne.
Malaysia did not participate in the Moscow 1980 Olympics because of a boycott against the Russians for their invasion of Afghanistan.
The Malaysians also failed to qualify to the 1990 World Cup in Lahore. This was after failing to shine at the Intercontinental tournament in July of 1989 at New Jersey.
The Auckland tournament hence was very important for the team with the main target of qualifying for the Barcelona Olympics as it would put Malaysia back on the world map.
On top of that, Malaysia's fortunes in Auckland would be charted by Walsh, who was hired before the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing where they won the bronze.
C. Paramalingam was the assistant coach in this tournament.
The appointment of Walsh, the failures of qualifying for the 1988 Seoul Olympics 1988 and World Cup in Lahore in 1990, massive support of National Sports Council (NSC), Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF), press and hockey fraternity had put us under pressure.
Expectations were high and it would be a disaster if Malaysia did not make it to Barcelona. So it was important for us to be able to cope with the pressure in our bid to be successful.
We were focused on the challenges in Auckland.
We had prepared well for this mission where among others the team had a playing tour of Europe and Australia. In all, we played 35 international matches before we landed in Auckland.
I was kind of lucky to have seniors in the squad. Seniors who played at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 -- Fadzil, Sarjit, Soon Mustafa -- who imparted their experience and knowledge of being part of the biggest Games on the planet.
Assistant coach Stephen was also in the Los Angeles squad, who incidentally coached by Paramalingam.
These players and Stephen spurred and inspired me a lot to give it all in Auckland and in the process helped the team making it to Barcelona.
I formed a good combination with Hadi and Nor Saiful after playing with them at the Beijing Asian Games.
I also had this telepathic understanding with Shankar as we were already playing together with the National Juniors for the Junior World Cup Finals in 1989 in Ipoh.
All in all, I scored nine goals from seven matches in Auckland. It was a great moment for me and my teammates and it made the fans happy.
We just could not wait for the Barcelona Olympics. The main target was achieved.
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