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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Beauty and the brawn
A bodybuilder and a gymnast are the 1999 Egyptian male and female athletes of the year. The Al-Ahram Weekly reports on the sultan of sinew and the master of motion
Two athletes using their muscles in contrasting styles and for very different purposes have won the top Egyptian male and female awards for the year 1999.
In a poll conducted by the Weekly's sports desk, 50 journalists from the major dailies selected world bodybuilding champion El-Shahat Mabrouk and African and Arab gymnast Yasmine Youssef as Egypt's cream of the crop at the turn of the century.
Mabrouk, 38, has won five world bodybuilding championships. In the just completed year, he displayed enough muscle to win in the under-80 kilogramme category. Mabrouk, a shoemaker as a youngster and an actor who takes his screen work as seriously as his biceps, started bodybuilding at 17 when it was obvious he had the physique for the sport. "Nobody chooses his name or his date of birth," Mabrouk, who garnered 14 votes, said. "The same goes for sport."
Mabrouk said he was fascinated by the way in which his body grew, adding that he used to love to compare his build with others. "I'm calm by nature," Mabrouk added. "I'm not aggressive so I wanted a sport that is artistic and showy rather than offensive."
It took Mabrouk nine years to tone his body to a technically fit level allowing him to enter world championships. In his very first try, in 1987, he won the world title. Following the feat, cinema was the next stop -- a plum role in The Guide.
Mabrouk sticks to an odd and perhaps unique pattern. After every world championship, he takes four years off to devote his time and energy to acting -- bodybuilding becoming an afterthought. He severs his contacts with friends in the sport, stops watching bodybuilding events and hardly speaks about his own achievements.
The lack of training did not prevent him from snatching two more crowns in 1991 and 1994. "This is not about sport, it's a love story," Mabrouk says. "I love the game so much, I don't want to be a regular champion and I don't want the game to be a regular sport." Mabrouk is obviously passionate about the sport, so much so that he gives himself time to miss what he describes as "my wife".
When pumping iron, Mabrouk can balloon up to 90 kilogrammes which poses a problem when he is scheduled to enter the 80-kilogramme category. When not playing, his weight can drop 20 kilogrammes. Twenty-four hours before an event, and sometimes only four hours, Mabrouk can shed up to eight kilogrammes -- he won't say how -- to reach the desired weight. He later regains the weight slowly so as not to get diabetes.
"A bodybuilder is a physician in disguise," Mabrouk said. "Because it's a game that deals with the beauty of the body, we study every bit of our bodies and the role of each muscle." His strict diet costs Mabrouk LE9,000 a month. The Egyptian Bodybuilding Federation pays the lion's share of that amount -- LE7,000.
Mabrouk hopes to win the 2000 Bodybuilding World Championship, starting the new millennium the way he ended the last.
Muscles on a much slighter frame and for a much more lady-like purpose, belonged to the sprightly Youssef, 18, who pranced and danced her way to four gold medals, one silver and one bronze in the 1999 All-Africa Games in Johannesburg in September. No Egyptian took more medals in the championship in which Youssef picked up the gauntlet thrown by South Africa's female gymnasts in pre-game hype. For the effort, Youssef picked up 23 votes from the journalists polled.
Youssef started with artistic gymnastics when she was seven in Gezira Sporting Club and at the age of nine, a Bulgarian coach noticed her. "I adore music. I used to swing all the time during training if I heard a tune," Youssef said. "I was happy with gymnastics but happier with rhythmic gymnastics." From 11 onwards, Youssef dominated the national championships, consistently garnering gold medals in the five disciplines: the rope, the hoop, the clubs, the ribbon and the ball. Her first international championship, an African juniors tournament in Namibia, landed her three gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
Youssef's preferred event is the ribbon and the ball. She chooses her own music, mostly Oriental, and is always stretching her imagination in the search for new movements.
Youssef's favourite pastime is to watch rhythmic gymnastics on video. She idolises former world champion Maria Petrova and current champion Teodora Alexandrova -- both Bulgarians. Despite the culinary difficulties living in Egypt poses, Youssef does manage to keep herself in good shape. She does have a sweet tooth for chocolate and must constantly watch her weight, much to the joy of prankster friends who devour anything in sight right in front of her.
The honours list would not have been complete without the following players:
The squash squad
A six-time fourth-place finisher, Egypt finally won the world title in October when it hosted the championship. Led by coach Abbas Qaoud, the team beat Wales in the final. The squad was battling not only other teams but history. Since the championship's inception in 1967, only three countries -- Australia, Pakistan and England -- had won. Make that four now.
Mahmoud El-Gohari
The famed football coach was unceremoniously dumped following Egypt's 5-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia in the Confederations Cup. But most agree his achievements far outweigh the mishaps. El-Gohari took Egypt to the 1990 World Cup in Italy and was head coach when Egypt won the 1998 African Nations Cup in Burkina Faso, becoming the first Egyptian to win the cup as a player and a coach.
Rania Elwani
Egypt's superstar swimmer failed to finish in the top balloting this year despite winning an unprecedented 10 gold medals in the Pan-Arab Games in Jordan. In the All-Africa Games in South Africa the booty was far smaller; a lone gold and two bronze.
Hadi Khashaba
The Ahli football star was selected by Minister of Youth Alieddin Hilal as the model athlete of 1999 because of his talents and sportsmanship. The midfielder is one of the cornerstones of his club and the national team.
Hatem Mersal
The long jumper won the bronze medal in the Oslo Grand Prix, setting a new African record with a jump of 8.31 metres. Mersal also took two gold medals in the Pan-Arab Games in Jordan and a gold medal in the All-Africa Games in Johannesburg.
Tahani Tussun
Arguably Egypt's top female volleyball player in the country's history, Tussun has helped Ahli win 13 local and 20 African trophies.
Ahmed Barada
Barada reached the dizzying heights of No 3 in the world of squash. Runner-up in the 1999 Al-Ahram Mobinil World Squash Open, Barada was a member of the victorious squad in the world team championship. He also captured the Heliopolis Open for a second time.
Hosting the World Handball Championship in June was selected Egypt's top sporting event in 1999. As their top stories, a poll of 50 journalists also picked, in descending order of importance, victory by the world female junior squash team, a fifth-place finish in the world sumo championship, junior handballers winning the bronze medal at the world championship in Qatar, the bodybuilding team taking second place in the world and the Al-Ahram Mobinil World Squash Championship.
But it was the handball tournament that drew the highest praise and the greatest number of votes, 37. Although Egypt finished seventh after lofty and somewhat exaggerated expectations that it would at least reach the semi-finals, simply hosting the global championship was arguably one of the nation's greatest sporting achievements of 1999 or any other year.
The formation of a new Ministry of Youth after more than 20 years was another major development that brought hopes of an improvement in sports in the country.
Included in the list was Egypt's performance at the ninth Pan-Arab Games in Jordan, where Egypt took first place and in the process won an unprecedented 267 medals, 106 of them gold. The haul was an astonishing 127 medals more than second place Tunisia. But up against more serious competition in Africa, Egypt took an unaccustomed backseat at the All-Africa Games in South Africa after finishing third behind the hosts and Nigeria. The Egyptian collection of 156 medals was 18 behind the South Africans, the country's poorest showing to date on the continent.
