Jordan's karate hopeful Abdallah Hammad targets gold in Buenos Aires
Abdallah Hammad qualified to compete in karate. Currently, he's training in Santiago de Chile while dreaming about a historic performance at Buenos Aires 2018.
Karate
Component ID : {B2CB076C-7B1F-4745-B87C-D2EC3436933C} / Component Path : /sitecore/content/Home/Games/YOG Games/Yog/Summer YOG/Buenos Aires 2018/Buenos Aires 2018 left block promo Jordan has its delegation of 12 young athletes who will be competing at Buenos Aires 2018. It will have athletes performing in basketball 3x3, karate, taekwondo, athletics and swimming. But one of those athletes is currently much closer to the Argentine capital than the others.
After spending some time in Egypt, karate athlete Abdallah Hammad is currently completing his last stage of preparations in a training camp in Santiago de Chile, where he's practicing with the national team ahead of the competition in October.
Hammad, who is just 16 years old and participates in the 61kg category, got his ticket to the Youth Olympic Games after he obtained the silver medal at the world qualifier held in the Croatian city of Umag in June.
The Jordanian wasn't able to beat Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Al-Assiri in the final, but he fulfilled his objective and won international respect. Prior to that competition he had an important breakthrough in his rising sport career when he took home the gold medal at the Asian Championship in Japan in May.
“Abdallah is a prominent karateka, he's very intelligent on the tatami and he has a great fighting spirit. He needs a high level of preparation, both physical and mental, and for that reason he's training in other countries and competing with senior opponents,” explained coach Mohamed Ibrahim Othman.
The karate competition at Buenos Aires 2018 is divided into three categories for each gender and will bring together 46 athletes from 32 countries. Hammad will represent Jordan in the Olympic debut of the discipline that will be on the Tokyo 2020 sport programme.
Karate will kick off on October 17 in the Europe Pavilion in the Youth Olympic Park and the Jordanian will have his chance to shine. Hammad is getting ready to represent his flag in a historic event and make his country proud.