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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters On the road to Sydney
By Eman Abdel-Moeti
Taekwondo has finally become an Olympic sport, and Egypt's Yehia Allam has become the first African to qualify for the upcoming Olympics to be held in Sydney, Australia in the year 2000.
Taekwondo players and fans the world over are no doubt excited by the new-found recognition that has been granted their sport. However, there is probably no one as excited as Yehia Allam. For nearly ten years, Allam has won medal after medal, and trophy after trophy. He took second place in the World Championships in Greece in 1991, won the World Cup held on the Caymen Islands in 1994, and was runner-up in the World Cup in Brazil in 1996. Yet his ultimate dream was to represent Egypt at the Olympics.
Moves towards accrediting the sport began during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when taekwondo was introduced through a series of demonstration matches. Allam qualified for the introductory matches and went on to win second place.
In the aftermath of the Barcelona games came the announcement that taekwondo was to be listed on the official Olympics programme. Since then, Allam has taken his training even more seriously than before, watching his diet carefully so as to neither fall below nor rise above his heavyweight category.
Imagine his surprise then when he discovered that the Egyptian Federation had decided to send a squad of younger players to the Sydney qualifiers held last week in Croatia. After a bout of negotiations, he managed to convince Federation officials that he was capable of winning Egypt the gold medal in the heavyweight category, and they agreed that Allam would travel along with Talaat Mabrouk, a talented young player in whom the Federation itself placed its highest hopes.
Unfortunately, the rules governing Olympic taekwondo have restricted the game to four weight categories for men and women alike, as opposed to the eight weight categories of the World Championships. The qualifiers held last week in Croatia were open to any number of countries, but only the best four would get to Sydney. In addition to this process, there are also a series of continental qualifiers. This second level of qualification gives each continent two places in the next Olympics -- all the continents except Africa, that is, which will only have one place.
Both Allam and Mabrouk, as well as Shaima Sobhi on the women's side, were sent to represent Egypt. To the surprise of the Federation, Mabruk lost to a Hungarian and Sobhi lost to a Guatemalan. Only Allam emerged victorious.
Allam's first match, which he won with a score of 6-5, was against a formidable Norwegian player who had been runner-up in the European Championships. It was his second match, however, that was to prove the more difficult. His opponent, the Croatian champion, was backed by the deafening cheers of his fellow countrymen. Yet, cheered or not, Allam still managed to beat him 6-4. The last match, which secured Allam the gold medal, was against a former world champion from Cuba. Both players finished the match level on points with 6 each. But a warning to the Cuban player meant a point was deducted from his total score, leaving Allam with the gold medal and a place in Sydney 2000.
