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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The flab four
By Eman Moemen
Seven nations have entered the Sumo International Masters Championship in Japan. To the surprise of many outsiders and locals as well, Egypt is among the bunch. The game hardly merits a mention, neither as a participatory or spectator sport. But that might soon change should a medal be won, The four hulks representing Egypt include Fawzi Hendawi in the under-115 kilogramme category, Mohamed Samak in the over-115 division, Amr Qandil in 120 and Hani Saleh in the open weight. Hendawi will be substituted for any of these players should they be injured, always a possibility in sumo which requires one fighter to force the other out of a marked circle or cause him to touch the ground with his body. Sounds easy enough, however, the wrestlers are extra large -- very fat men with sometimes even bigger egos which need as much massaging as their girths.
Mohamed Samak, left, poised to lunge
photo:Ayman Ibrahim
Against Germany, Georgia, Poland, Mongolia, the US and hosts Japan, the Egyptians will literally have their hands full but in Samak, who is also the team's coach, it has a genuine medal prospect after he placed a respectable fifth in the World Championship in Germany in December.
Africa's champion Samak, 27, began his career as a judo player. In 1993, when the Egyptian Judo Federation set up a sumo committee, he started practising both sports. After an injury in 1995, he opted for sumo. "Besides needing muscles, I also found it interesting," Samak told Al-Ahram Weekly.
In his first coaching stint, Samak took the Egyptian junior team to third place and the bronze medal in the World Junior Championship in Japan. His reward was to take charge of the national team. "It was a precious opportunity for me though it sounded strange at the beginning, to be a teammate to my colleagues and their coach as well," Samak said. "It's a difficult task because sometimes you have to be firm with your buddies while training."
Samak, who would like to study for a doctorate in sumo wrestling in order to spread the sport in the country, said he learnt a lot from a course he took in Japan last year and from Takaza Kanu, secretary of the International Sumo Federation (ISF), the sport's public relations guru.
Kanu visited Egypt in February to assess Egyptian players and how far the game had progressed. He liked what he saw, saying Egypt had promising talent which could develop into world class champions. "Egyptian players enjoy strength, stamina, fitness and fighting spirit that could allow them to qualify for the World Championships and maybe one day winning it as well," Kanu said at the time.
The first half of Kanu's prediction has come true; whether the second part also materialises will be known soon enough as the six-day event ends Sunday. One thing needs no more guessing: the ISF recently allowed Muslim athletes to wear stretch shorts under the skimpy attire sumo wrestlers wear in keeping with religious traditions.
