As the Jordanian men’s national football team were making their way to a historic runner-up finish in the Asian Cup, the country’s top taekwondo fighters spent time in Fujairah honing their skills ahead of this summer’s Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Fujairah Martial Arts Club hosted a training camp for several taekwondo national teams, including Jordan, Tunisia, Greece and Kazakhstan, bringing together some of the world’s most talented athletes under one roof for the kick off of the Olympic season.
Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (-58kg), of Tunisia, and Saleh El Sharabaty (-80kg), of Jordan, were among those taking part, along with Jordanian 2018 Youth Olympics bronze medallist Zaid Kareem, who is currently ranked No 5 in the world in the -68kg category.
Kareem, 22, is the latest in a string of gifted Jordanians that has risen up the taekwondo ranks and populated podiums on the sport’s biggest stages over the past decade.
A silver medallist at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last October, Kareem looks primed for success in Paris this summer, where he hopes to add to Jordan’s growing medal haul in the sport.
In 2016, taekwondo fighter Ahmad Abughaush claimed Jordan’s first official medal at an Olympic Games by topping the podium in the -68kg division before El Sharabaty added a second medal five years later at Tokyo by claiming a silver medal.
Last year, Julyana Al Sadeq became the first Jordanian and Arab woman to top the world taekwondo rankings following her victory at the Saudi Grand Prix in December 2022.
All three are Paris-bound this summer.
“We train together every day, we practically live together. We’re not a team, we are family,” Kareem told The National following the conclusion of the team’s training camp in Fujairah.
“We are always at each other’s houses, and are together day and night training. Saleh’s medal in Tokyo gives me even more belief in myself because we train together all the time. So his silver medal was one of the biggest incentives for me to scoop many medals after Tokyo.”
Still a teenager at the time, Kareem didn’t go to the Tokyo Olympics but he exploded on to the scene in 2022, rising from No 38 to No 6 in the Olympic rankings.
“Ever since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics ended, we have been under a lot of pressure, competing in so many events, and the goal was to qualify for the Paris Olympics directly via world ranking rather than go through continental qualifiers. So we competed in so many events,” he explained.
“I defeated so many great athletes in 2022, including all three medallists – gold, silver, and bronze – from the Tokyo Olympics. So that was very encouraging, and I proved to myself I belong among the best, and realised that I was capable of winning at this level.
“2023 was gruelling as well; a long season where every point mattered because many athletes were breathing down our necks in the rankings. So, thankfully, I qualified via ranking and I am much more relaxed now. I can just focus on training and camps from now until Paris.”
Kareem was first introduced to the sport aged five, when his father took him to a nearby taekwondo club so he could burn some energy away from the house.
It wasn’t until he was 14 and earning his first international medal in the cadets division that he realised he needed to take the sport more seriously. Three years later, Kareem made the podium at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires and he’s now ready to go even further this summer in Paris.
“The Youth Olympics, to this day, is one of the best events I’ve ever participated in,” reflects the Al Ahliyya Amman University student.
“Seeing athletes from all over the world in one place, in one Olympic Village, was such a great experience for me. And I was honoured to bring a medal to my country.
“The experience I got from the Youth Olympics will be very valuable to me when I go to Paris this summer, because I’ll have lived through a similar environment before. There’s always high pressure at an Olympics, so if you’ve been through something similar in the past, surely it’ll help.”
Kareem credits Jordan’s vibrant taekwondo scene for the kingdom’s success on the world stage. He says there are over 60 martial arts clubs across the country and there is a full calendar of competitions and training camps, which helps elevate the overall level of athletes.
National team coach Faris Al Assaf says a national Olympic training centre opened its doors in 2021, which boasts world-class facilities, including a hall dedicated to taekwondo, along with a gym, physio room, and everything an athlete needs.
“Our federation is very strong and they give great attention to taekwondo, which is practically a national sport in Jordan; we probably have more people doing taekwondo than playing football in the country,” said Al Assaf.
“We worked hard to make sure we had a full national team, not just one or two fighters. So we have competitors across all weight classes.
“We’ve had about 30 countries come for training camps in Jordan, from across all continents. We have developed a special Jordanian style in taekwondo, just like there is the Korean school and the Iranian school, now there is the Jordanian school in taekwondo.
“If you watch our athletes, you can identify a certain style associated with Jordanian fighters and the biggest nations in the sport now know they are in for a big fight if they are facing one of our competitors.
“Taekwondo switched to an electronic scoring system after the Beijing 2008 Olympics so we have merged both styles of play, from the old system and the new system, which means our athletes are more complete.”
For Kareem, taekwondo has provided an environment where he can be himself. The 22-year-old from Amman has a never-say-die attitude, and is confident in his chances in Paris this summer.
“When I am on the mat, I feel like I can impose my personality, and show who I am,” he said.
“Tight competitions make me really happy and it allows me to give my all and show what I’m made of. You get to mix with so many people from around the world in a sport like taekwondo so it helps you develop your personality, and improve your communication skills and how you deal with people.
“As Zaid, surrender is not part of my vocabulary, I always compete until the very last second. In so many of my fights, I secured the win in the last second. Because I never give up and I know the fight is never over until the referee says it’s over. I keep fighting until the final moments. Even when I’m way behind in the score, I always believe I can catch up.”
He added: “I have defeated the best in the world, so in my mind, nothing is impossible. I just need to stay focused and prepare well in these six months. The Olympics is all about the mental side, so I need to make sure I arrive in Paris in a good mental state. All I can do is give my best and hopefully a medal is within reach.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
Directed: Smeep Kang Produced: Soham Rockstar Entertainment; SKE Production Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma Rating: Two out of five stars
Chatham House Rule
A mark of Chatham House’s influence 100 years on since its founding, was Moscow’s formal declaration last month that it was an “undesirable organisation”.
The depth of knowledge and academics that it drew on following the Ukraine invasion had broadcast Mr Putin’s chicanery.
The institute is more used to accommodating world leaders, with Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher among those helping it provide authoritative commentary on world events.
Chatham House was formally founded as the Royal Institute of International Affairs following the peace conferences of World War One. Its founder, Lionel Curtis, wanted a more scientific examination of international affairs with a transparent exchange of information and ideas.
That arena of debate and analysis was enhanced by the “Chatham House Rule” states that the contents of any meeting can be discussed outside Chatham House but no mention can be made identifying individuals who commented.
This has enabled some candid exchanges on difficult subjects allowing a greater degree of free speech from high-ranking figures.
These meetings are highly valued, so much so that ambassadors reported them in secret diplomatic cables that – when they were revealed in the Wikileaks reporting – were thus found to have broken the rule. However, most speeches are held on the record.
Its research and debate has offered fresh ideas to policymakers enabling them to more coherently address troubling issues from climate change to health and food security.
