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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Hisham wins gold, silver medals in Helsinki Karate Open

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MUSCAT: Oman’s Hisham Mohammed Abdullah al Busaidy won three medals — a gold and two silver — at the Helsinki Karate Open 2019 on August 17 in the Finland capital. Helsinki Karate Open is a World Karate Federation (WKF) international competition with more than 600 player registrations from 24 countries from all over the world. It involved International WKF referees from all over world with WKF accreditation.


Oman’s 11-year-old Hisham grabbed a gold medal and two silver medals in Kata section in the Under-14 group categories.


Hisham took on the challenge and decided to compete in older categories against 14, 13 and 12 year old boys.


Hisham al Busaidy had eight strong matches all together against players from different federations. He competed against Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Vietnam, Iran, Latvia, Norway and Estonia.


This is the first ever participation from Oman in the Helsinki Open and the only Arab country to have participated.


After an impressive win from the 11-year-old, the organisers wished to see the player again in future tournaments in Finland. The referees, coaches and players from different federations also appreciated the Omani boy for his feat.


Hisham, who normally trains at home, takes karate seriously and wishes one day to represent Oman in the national team.


Hisham also participated in the champions camp on the August 18 and was trained by the three times World Karate kata champion and the premiere league champion Nguyen Hoang from Vietnam. The camp also involved Alexandra Recchia from France who is kumite two-time world champion, three-time European champion and 12 times premier league champion. It was a rich experience for the Omani boy from the masters.


MAKING HISTORY


In June 2018, Hisham made history by winning gold in kata in his category when he was just 10 years old, to be the first Omani to participate and win in the World Karate Championship in WUKF in Scotland. More than 2,000 participants from 43 countries participated in that championship. His trainer was Alex Alie from Romania who trained Hisham for two weeks before the world championship and coached him through the competition.


After his big win in Scotland he took a two months break to concentrate on school and later started again. He got a bronze medal in Luxembourg in October and then a gold medal in November 2018 both in kata in WKF competitions in Dubai for 10-year-old category.


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