The current world karate champion over 84kg, Ahmed Abdel-Moeen started his playing days when he was four. His father was a sportsman who played several sports. Perhaps by coincidence, all of Ahmed's family members including his sister Menna played karate which got Ahmed fascinated with the game at an early age. Ahmed's elder brother and his coach, Islam, was also world champion in 2005 and 2007 in the open weight and Arab champion four consecutive years starting in 2005. Ahmed was deeply inspired by his brother and fascinated with the idea of medals as he saw his brother travelling here and there. He wanted to walk (or kick) in his footsteps. Abdel-Moeen, now 20, started playing karate in the Governorate Club, now called Pharoas Club. He was greatly influenced by his coach, Gamal Diab, who was one of Alexandria's legends in karate. Diab, 58, has trained the seven world champions that came from Alexandria. Abdel-Moeen rightfully considers Diab an expert in the sport, the proud owner of a black belt 8 dan which is the highest rank in karate. Under Diab's guidance, Abdel-Moeen started bodybuilding and being tall helped him in beating some well-known champions to win second place in his first participation in the Senior World Championship held in Greece in 2011 when he was only 18 years old. He lost only one match, the final. Abdel-Moeen also came first in the Senior African Championship held in Namibia in 2010 and came in fifth in the World Universities Championship in Slovakia 2009. But for Ahmed, the under-21 Youth World Championship held in Spain in November was the real birth of his talent when he was able to defeat world champions easily. He followed the instructions of a mind coach and his fitness and injuries doctors to the letter. “Such aspects were completely ignored in the national team before, but nowadays and under the guidance of Ayman Abdel-Hamid, (Egyptian Karate Federation president), such innovations have given the players more support and confidence in front of their opponents,” declared Abdel-Moeen who shifted to Talaa Al-Geish club after he collected the gold medal. He will now represent his new club in the national league starting in February 2014. Abdel-Moeen used to train twice at his club in Alex. He says he is training well these days for the national championship that will send him to the national team in 2014. Surprisingly, he claims the qualification rounds of the national championship are far more difficult than those of any World Championship. “I face very strong competition in my weight in the national event. We play a lot of matches and we have a lot of opponents from across Egypt. Each and every player is putting the national team as his target goal so these matches are very tough and need a lot of preparation.” After the national championship, the first three winners in each weight qualify for the national team but only one player in each weight is to represent Egypt in the World Championship. “So again you have to work harder to qualify and beat your other two opponents.” Abdel-Moeen's sole dream is to represent his country in the Olympics when karate becomes an official sport. Karate officials have vowed not to give up on their dream of joining the Olympic programme despite its failure to even get on the shortlist for 2020. Bidding for a new sport for the 2024 Olympics is expected to be opened in two years, when karate will launch another campaign. Says Abdel-Moeen: “I might be daydreaming but it is the dream I am living for and I think I will be able to fulfill it one day and very soon.”
