Omar who?
Egypt's first world junior discus record is held by somebody hardly anybody knows. Mohamed El-Sayed brings to the fore a face in the crowd
On 7 November last year, a bit of history was made by an Egyptian. Omar El-Ghazali set a new world junior track and field record, throwing a 1.750kg discus 65.88 metres. That broke the record of 64.51 metres set by a Chinese in the world junior championship held in 2002 in Jamaica.
"There were no international championships being held at the time," El- Ghazali, 19, told Al-Ahram Weekly. So the Egyptian federation did something highly irregular: it held a tournament that had just one participant -- El- Ghazali. The lack of competition obviously had no effect on his performance.
The record throw, which was monitored by Egyptian referees, has been registered as official by the International Athletics Associations Federation.
Despite the record and in spite of being the only discus thrower in the country, El-Ghazali is not a household name, the discus not being a widely practiced game in Egypt. Nevertheless, El- Ghazali has been outstanding in the event and has not let his relative anonymity deter him.
He began practising in Gezira Club where he also played handball. In 1999, Nagi Asaad, the coach of the national athletics team and star shotputter in the 1970s, selected him for the team. He was 15 at the time.
In 2000 El-Ghazali made his national debut, setting a new Egyptian record of 55.35 metres with a 2kg discus. That year he was seventh in the African championships but that still allowed him to play in the world championships. He was 16 by then and competing against athletes three years older. It showed; he finished 17th.
In the same year, though, he compensated somewhat by winning the gold medal in the Arab championships in Syria.
In 2001, because he was forced to concentrate on high school exams he could not get farther than a bronze in the world junior championship in Chile, making a 61.8-metre throw with a 1.50kg discus. That year he also won the silver medal in the African youth championships and the gold medal in the Arab schools championships.
2002 did not go well for El-Ghazali after suffering an injury before the under-20 world championship in July. He entered anyway, finishing 10th. A month later, he won the bronze medal in the African championships and took the gold medal in the Arab youth championships for the second time.
The turning point in his career came in 2003. He trained for one month in South Africa under the supervision of Ukrainian coach Kaai Preller. "I acquired a great deal of experience from him as he was a former world champion," El-Ghazali said. "Even after I returned to Egypt, I kept in touch with him as he was sending me training programmes via e- mail."
Preller's efforts paid off. That year El- Ghazali took the gold medal in the African youth championships in Cameroon, throwing a 1.750kg discus 61.87 metres, a new Egyptian, Arab and African record.
In September of the same year he won the gold medal in an Arab tournament in Jordan. In the All-Africa Games in October, he took a gold medal, throwing a 2kg discus 63.61 metres, a new African Games record. As a result, he qualified, along with three others, for the Afro- Asian Games in India. Although he was fasting, he managed a bronze, heaving the discus 59.77 metres.
In preparation for the Athens Olympics in August this year, El-Ghazali will train in South Africa again, with Preller from February to April. In May he will fly to France to take part in one tournament, then on to Romania and Algeria for two more events.
He is also scheduled to take part in the African championships in Congo in July. However, El-Ghazali may not participate because of the limited time that separates it from the Olympic Games.
A member of the Olympic Champion Project sponsored by the Ministry of Youth, El-Ghazali is being groomed to win gold in Beijing in the 2008 Olympic Games. "In this year's Olympic Games I expect to reach the final round which includes the best 12 players," he said. Because of his age he will probably go no farther. Ashraf Bakir, head of the Egyptian Athletics Federation, said that El-Ghazali will not be held accountable in case he does not bring back a medal.
Although El-Gezira Club provides El- Ghazali with grounds in which to train, he hopes that a specialised centre for discus throwing will be built in Egypt. He also hopes that he will be able to popularise the discus the way Ahmed Barada did with squash. "Maybe when I win an Olympic medal the game will draw many new players to it as squash and handball did in the last decade."
