Muscat, Sept 18
Mohammad al Mashaykhi is the man of the moment in Oman sport after scripting history in Tokyo with an epochal 10.84M throw in the shot put F32 final that fetched him the Paralympics bronze medal.
Mashaykhi is still basking in the glory of that effort that has come to him after years of perseverance and persistence coupled with dogged determination and resilience.
“A special thanks to the Tunisian coach Sunia Mustafa who was behind me until I accomplished the historic achievement. She had supervised me and guided me in all training sessions ,” he added.
The 30-year-old spoke in detail about his long, arduous journey on the way to claiming the bronze medal.
“The story began in 2017 at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex where I started my intensive training to achieve my dream. Later, the pandemic period impacted my training plan due to the suspension of the sports activities. However, we had an alternative solution through long overseas camp in Tunisia for a period of four months. The external preparatory camp was not easy as it included strong daily training sessions and other technical commitments. I had a target in the camp to reach the desired technical level ahead of 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and that occurred after the camp. The Tunisian camp assisted me a lot to reach the podium in Tokyo,” he said.
Al Mashaykhi, who hails from Jalaan, explained his feelings after standing on the podium as the first Oman medallist in Olympic and Paralmpic games. “The feeling was mixture of joy, tears and pleasure on raising the country flag in a top sporting event. These are the moments which every athlete and paraathlete are looking,” he added
Oman Paralympics Committee (OPC) worked hard to provide a proper environment for the paraathlete.
“A dedicated thanks to the OPC for their usual support to all the Paralympics players. OPC is playing a crucial role to develop the technical performance of all the Paralympic champions. They discovered my technical capability and provided a professional plan to improve all my technical skills. The technical expertise team in OPC is continuing to discover more potential heroes for the near future. I am sure with more support we can have more and better accomplishments,” he said
The 2017 world championships silver medallist in London empahsised on the requirement for the national Paralympics team to impress in the forthcoming events and championships.
”The government and private sectors are supplying us with the required support. However, we need more assistance and support from all the sectors. The additional contribution will allow us to gain more experience in the preparations and taking part at different regional, continental and international level events,” he ended.
The champion Al Mashaykhi will take part in the forthcoming edition of the World Para Athletics championships in Kobe, Japan that have been rescheduled to 26 August-4 September 2022.
Apart from that, he will participate in many other GCC and Asian championships.
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