By Inas Mazhar Nine-year-old Heba El-Bourini claimed the under--10 title at the Levski International Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria, becoming the first Egyptian to win an international championship in the sport. Inas Mazhar reports on the girl prodigy. El-Bourini, nicknamed Louba after the famed world and Olympic Bulgarian champion, claimed two gold medals and one bronze in the one-day event held two weeks ago. The golds came in the individual and the apparatus while the silver was for the free event. The apparatus for this age included playing with the rope and ball. Levski is the second biggest event in the sport in the country after the Bulgaria Open. This year's event marked the club's celebration of its 51st anniversary. Last year, El-Bourini, who plays for Al-Gezira club, came third in the same championship. According to mother Buthaina, the referees this year were fair and saw an improvement in her daughter's performance. "Her scores put her ahead of her Bulgarian opponents who had defeated her the previous year," Buthaina said. Altogether 15 players representing nine countries took part. After just two days rest, El-Bourini, who has been described by former world and Olympic champions as a future world class champion, was at it again, taking part in another international event, this one in Targovitch where El-Bourini was making her second appearance at the Seiska international championship created in 1978. Fifteen players representing nine countries competed; El-Bourini was runner-up in all three events -- the individual, apparatus and free. "Louba could have won it but this time the referees were biased," Buthaina claimed, though she admitted they admired her performance and compositions. "It's still a very good result for Heba," Buthaina said. "She has been improving and that's what we care about. She is still so young and a long future awaits her." The Al-Gezira Club delegation in Bulgaria comprised 11 gymnasts -- five players for the under-10 event, two in the semi-junior event, two in the junior event and two in the senior event. Most of the participants were playing at an international event for the first time. But they did fairly well all the same. Besides El-Bourini, May Alaa finished seventh in the junior event, Alyaa Tageddin seventh in the semi-junior event while Aicha Mohamed came fourth in the under-10 event. Much of Al-Gezira's success goes to the Bulgarian coach of the club, Paulina Nikolova, who is a former world champion and a former player in Levski. She has been in Egypt for 10 years and has helped Gezira maintain its position as the country's best rhythmic gymnastics club. She trained her girls twice daily during the summer for the Bulgaria tournaments. El-Bourini, a sixth grade student at the Modern English School in Cairo, also praised her school, as did her mother. "They've been very understanding. They gave her two weeks off in September to take part in the events and after we returned, she took all the lessons she missed." In June, El-Bourini participated in two international championships in Tornovo. In the first, she came third in the free and fourth in the individual. In the second, she came in third in rope, ball and free. In January, El-Bourini will play in the semi-juniors category, an unprecedented achievement for her age in rhythmic gymnastics.
