IN India they believe in miracles. At least Imtiaz Ames and his family do, and they have every reason to. Imtiaz realised his dream of competing in the three-day Olympic equestrian event at last month's Sydney Games, after three times being told he had failed to qualify for selection. The most recent came on the evening before competition.

The only Indian in Olympic equestrian com-petition, Imtiaz qualified as a reserve for the three-day event. The deadline for horses to be withdrawn came and went on September 12 and Imtiaz had not been called upon.

His wife Masume re-calls that at that stage Imtiaz was told it would be a miracle if he got to ride.

The deadline was extended until 5pm on September 18, Imtiaz traveled to Sydney from his training base in Berry in country NSW, only to hear that no horses had been withdrawn and he would not he competing in the Olympics.

But Imtiaz returned to Berry and kept training. At 8.30 that night he received a phone call to say a horse had been withdrawn at the last minute.

He returned to Sydney to compete in the Olympics the next day. Competing on his horse Spring Invader, Imtiaz finished 23rd out of a field of 38.

He was the only Asian rider and one of the only 23 riders to finish the competition.

Another important role was that played by Spring Invader, one of the youngest horses in the competition and the only horse that didn't get familiarization with the arena.

For the previous three years Imtiaz had trained from a base in Camperdown and credits the support he received from the community, and most importantly Terang-based mentor Barry Roycroft, for his achievement.

"I had a goal and I had an ambition and that's what helped. That was the most important thing, I knew where I had to go and what I had to achieve to accomplish this goal," he said.

"I knew what I wanted and I knew I was prepared to work as hard as I could to achieve it, but I didn't know how. He had been there, he helped me in telling me whether I was on the right track."

He said the Camperdown community had also been a great support. "When you leave your family and your home it's really hard. Even when things were down, when things were hard they really supported me, which was fantastic."

Imtiaz started competing in equestrian events in 1995, moving to Australia from India, where equestrianism is not a high priority or well known sport.

"I came here and did my first training in 1995. That year I won the one star three-day event at Darlington." It was in that event the he beat Australian Olympian Matt Ryan.

"That was a buzz, that was when I said, `all right I want to event'," Imtiaz said.