Former javelin champions and record holders were flabbergasted by the performance of Egyptian javelin thrower, Ihab Abdel-Rahman at the IAAF Diamond League that was held in Shanghai last week. Arriving at Cairo Airport after his victory, the 25-year-old champion was warmly received with flowers and folkloric dances by Minister of Youth and Sports Engineer Khaled Abdel-Aziz and Ahli Club President Mahmoud Taher, as well as a few members of the National Olympic Committee. Abdel-Aziz announced that he will offer all the needed financial support for the champion, who has qualified for the coming Rio De Janeiro Olympics 2016. “We have to offer him all he needs to be able to secure a medal for Egypt in the coming Olympics. We have been absent in athletics for years and we need to reclaim our past achievements,” the minister said. Last Sunday evening in Shanghai, Abdel-Rahman threw a massive 89.21m to defeat one of the strongest fields at the second leg of the Diamond League. All three medalists from the IAAF World Championship held in Moscow 2013 — Vitezslav Vesely, Tero Pitkamaki and Dmitry Tarabin — were there, along with Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott. Abdel-Rahman broke both the African and the Arab records with his new achievement. Having scored a mere 83.93m at the beginning of this month, even the champion himself could not believe his victory. “I have improved greatly. I concentrated well and had only one target: to perform well, and I did. I have suffered a lot since I was young, especially in athletics, but at last I have been repaid,” the young champion said. Dr Waleed Atta, president of the Egyptian Athletics Federation, explained that the federation has been operating under harsh financial conditions since the 25th of January Revolution, saving money for the preparation of the national team's stars at a time when a number of federations were unable to cover their employees' monthly salary. Abdel-Rahman had joined a four-month training camp in Finland at the hands of one of the most famous coaches and gurus in javelin throw, Finnish Petteri Piironen. “I have learnt a lot from my coach who followed the training plan that was set by my best coach, Mohamed Naguib, in Egypt. But he added to it as there are a number of sports facilities and equipments that we Egyptians know nothing about. I trained there with the world champions and Olympic stars and I have completely changed my style and technique, in addition to my fitness,” Abdel-Rahman said. According to Atta, Abdel-Rahman, was nominated to this year's IAAF Diamond League event in China after his performance in last year's IAAF World championships held in Russia. He started by throwing 83.62m, then he retreated to 80.94m to rank seventh. “This was an achievement in itself because Egyptian athletes were absent from the international scene for years,” Atta said. Piironen said that Abdel-Rahman could be a 90m thrower with the help of better coaching. “His throwing arm is one of the best I've ever seen. He is big and strong and has a natural gift for throwing. He can run faster, get stronger and fitter. I expected good results this year,” he said on Monday. Apparently, even Piironen had not expected such a result this soon. The legendary Jan Zelezny remains the world record-holder at 98.48m, but only 12 men have ever exceeded 90 metres since the centre of gravity of the spear was changed in 1986 because throwers such as East Germany's Uwe Hohn (the world record-holder at 104.80m with the former model) were threatening life and limb at the other end of the world's stadia. Abdel-Rahman is now ranked 13th all-time in his specialist event according to the IAAF World Ranking. Abdel-Rahman's athletics career took off in 2006, when he wanted to collect marks for his final year in secondary school, so he joined the school athletics team in Kafr Sakr, Sharqia. Captain Mohamed Naguib saw him play there and asked him to join Ahli. Later, he joined the Egyptian national team but quit in 2011 after being forced to train with a different coach that he disliked. Atta intervened at the time, convincing Abdel-Rahman to rejoin. “I have always seen in him a star and an Olympic athlete. He was well-built, well-behaved and abided by his coaches' instructions,” Atta said. Before Abdel-Rahman's record last week, no one had scored such a distance in the Diamond League for the past six years. Even at the London Olympics, the gold medalist threw 84.65m. Piironen first met Abdel-Rahman when the latter came to Kuortane on an IAAF scholarship in 2008. He could see the potential, but financial support and the recent social upheavals in Egypt meant that continuous training and support was not possible at that time, despite Abdel-Rahman claiming the African title in 2010 and competing for his continent later that year at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split. However, according to Abdel-Rahman, he was unable to secure a medal in the 2012 London Olympics as he was not offered a new pair of shoes for the competitions, so he played with an old one that was torn. He said that he now needs the support of the ministry to offer him a respectable place to live and a good salary to be able to concentrate on practicing. “Individual sports always suffer in Egypt as football receives all the limelight, even though it does not collect any medals in international events. We hope we could be held on an equal footing to football players and not less,” he said.
