The women's karate champion of Egypt, Amani Arafa, has won two medals at the World Karate Mediterranean Cup that ended earlier this week in Istanbul. Inas Mazhar reports The 24-year-old won a silver medal in the kata event despite stiff competition from Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Croatia and Turkey. The following day, Arafa added a bronze in the kumite event. "It was a tough competition but I had trained hard," Arafa said. "I wanted to win and add to the achievements of my colleagues in wrestling, boxing and taekwondo in the Olympic Games." Arafa was referring to the five Olympic medals, including a gold, won by Egypt at the Athens Olympics. Arafa believes kata is more difficult than kumite. "In kata, you have to concentrate and perform your best in the one minute you are given. A player has to imagine that he is fighting against two or more people. You are, of course, playing against thin air, however, all your kicks should be solid." Arafa, who is studying at the Arab Maritime Academy for Technology and Science, said victory would be dedicated to the President of the academy Gamal Mokhtar who is her main sponsor and "who has provided me with all the facilities required to succeed". Arafa was a regional and African champion before joining the academy, but Mokhtar honed her talents even more and hired a kata expert, Mohamed Fouad, who was the former head coach of the karate national team, to be her private coach. Arafa also singled out the vice president of the academy, Nagi El-Semallawi, and academy professors Fathi El-Qabbani and Mohamed Ali for praise. "They arranged for all my training camps in which I had access to all the facilities, as well as camps abroad." Arafa will start training in preparation for the world karate championship scheduled to be held in November in Mexico. Arafa's record includes fourth place at the 1997 world championship in Hungary, fifth in the world championship in Greece 2001 and runner-up in the 2002 world championship in Hungary. She won bronze and silver medals in international championships in Mexico, Croatia and France. She also won gold medals at the Latin America championship, the Middle East championship and the All-Africa Games in Nigeria 2003.
