Egypt has never won a medal of any colour in athletics at the World Championships or at the Olympic Games, but matters could change soon in light of the remarkable form of Ihab Abdelrahman, holder of the best mark in the world in the javelin throw last year at 89.21 m.
Abdelrahman made no secret of his ambition to be the first Egyptian athlete to achieve this feat, whether at the upcoming World Championships to be held in China in late August, or if not then at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016.
Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed drew attention in 2014 when he finished the year with the best mark in the world in this event.
Abdelrahman said while in Doha on the sidelines of his participation in the first round of the Diamond League in Doha tomorrow, Friday: “I want to do my best to achieve a good result by finishing in one of the top three places at the upcoming World Championships. Of course I hope to finish first, but the most important thing is to achieve a personal record for myself” and added “I am preparing well through an intensive training programme that includes several appearances in the Diamond League and at the famous Ostrava meeting, plus some competitions in Finland right before the World Championships begin. Ihab was born into a non-sporting family in a village in Sharqia, and his only experience in the sporting field was when he played football in his late teens, and if football was Abdelrahman’s first love, being a fan of Egypt’s Al Ahly and Spain’s Real Madrid, he showed a glimpse of his talent in athletics and was pushed to take part in his first competition at the national level after a coach saw him throw the javelin a distance of 40 metres while standing, on his very first attempt ever, and El Sayed says on this: “My teacher at school told me if I win a gold medal in the national competitions I will get a higher mark at school, and in fact I did not start practising the javelin throw out of love for this sport but by chance”, and El Sayed settled that competition in his favour, and two years later he achieved a heavyweight surprise by winning silver at the 2008 World Youth Championships in Poland, and in that same year he also received a scholarship from the International Association of Athletics Federations to go to the Finnish city of Kuortane for a period of 4 months, which is considered the spiritual home of the javelin throw, but his experience there did not last long, as his lack of command of the English language and his failure to adapt to the freezing atmosphere, in addition to a back injury, made him return to Egypt after only two weeks, and El Sayed admits, saying: “I did not understand what the people there were saying. I stayed in my room for a long time and I felt cold. Snow covered the roads throughout my stay there and I said to myself what am I doing here, and in that period too I suffered a tear in my back after doing exercises there alongside the 2007 world champion, Finland’s Tero Pitkämäki, and I managed to learn a great deal from Finnish coach Petteri Piironen (his coach at present), and he also began to learn the English language after his return home.
He then returned to Kuortane and strengthened his relationship with Piironen, continuing the process of developing his level, and in 2010 he was crowned African champion for the first time, as he also crossed the 80 metre barrier for the first time in his career.
