JEDDAH, 26 January 2007 — Dressed in a light checked shirt and blue baggy jeans, Abdulrahman Al-Hazmi comes across as a cool and trendy teenager in these parts.
Make no mistake. This 21-year old was the first judoka to bring laurels to his country with his medals. A Business Administration junior at the King Abdulaziz University, Al-Hazmi can’t wait to have both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Studies are a priority but judo remains a passion for the 5-foot-6 Al-Hazmi, who has moved up to the under 66 kgs. weight category.
Al-Hazmi drew the inspiration to take up judo from his brother Naif, 34, who was a judo champion himself and is now a judo referee, military captain and architect. “He is my role model,” he said, adding “how he managed to combine between all this is how I see my future.”
Al-Hazmi’s mettle was put to the test during the last Asian Games in Doha. Ranged against a slew of world champions, Al-Hazmi could only finish fifth. Considering the caliber of the competition Al-Hazmi was quite satisfied with the result. Though he missed the one month and a half training camp in Japan with the rest of his peers, due to his studies , Al-Hazmi worked out at the university and at the club trying to keep up.
Up next for Al-Hazmi after last December’s Asiad is the Arab Games to be held in Egypt.
“Now we look forward to Arab Games, a very important competition for us as Arabs,” he said.
The Seoi Nage move is the one skill he has mastered though he believes that one can not enter a game with only one move in his mind. The judoka has to master many moves and make good use of all chances the rival offers him while playing, was his point of view.
But one thing he learned and was the key to judo is that each opponent cannot hold his move for more than five seconds, and one must know when his muscles would relax during the five seconds to take good advantage of it.
“Training camps are sure very useful but sometimes you have to sacrifice them because of life obligations like my studies which I’ll always give it my priorities,” he said. “Meeting internationals is my biggest thrill and the thing I really learn from,” he said explaining how this can make up for missing the training camps. Nevertheless, through the training camps abroad he added, they got to meet other athletes and learn about them and their skills and country.
“That is how I got to be friends with Moroccans, Egyptians, Algerians, Gulf nationals and others and started to learn more about their techniques, culture and economy.”
Al-Hazmi had been a member of Al-Wehda Judo Club in Makkah since he was eight. Abdulrahman was into taekwondo for a year and a half but then turned to judo after he lost in all the Kingdom’s competitions. The move to judo was a major step in his sporting life and victories started to flow one after the other since then.
He won all the local competitions in his age and weight categories and his first international victory came at the age of 13 at the Arab Games in 2000 in Dubai placing second in the 45 kg. class.
At the Gulf Championship he was undefeated champion for four straight years from 2003 to 2006 for the -55kg, -60kg and -66kg. Moreover he was ranked 1st again in 2003 at the -60kg event at the Arab Games in Lebanon and at 2004 in Morocco and in Jordan also first place went to Al-Hazmi too at the -55kg event. At the International Damascus Championship for judo, he took third place in the -66kg event. This is in addition to other silver and bronze medals won at the International Judo Championship held in Egypt and in Morocco.
The passion in judo for Al-Hazmi was overwhelming as he puts it. “Sometimes I get injured and it does not heal completely but I can’t imagine myself not doing judo and training with my friends.”
“I will never stop judo, I will finish my education but again I may become judo coach or referee or administrator because I can not stop it.” He wished that “we can have sports academies in here where sports’ fans can enjoy becoming professionals in sports and back up this professionalism with high standards of education.”
Speaking about the difficult part of being an athlete he said two years ago, he was requested to lose weight. Sometimes he lost five kilos in a day and in other times, he lost 11 kilos in five days. “It is not easy, and I was not happy even If I got good results, I was weak afterwards for a long time,” he said.
He could not enjoy going out with friends due to his condition. Sometimes he would sleep in the room with his coach so he would not be tempted to eat chocolates that his friends bring. “But now the coach understands that I love eating and I am more relaxed and happier without losing weight and I do believe I play even better.”
Having people who support you makes a big difference, he said. Chinese and Japanese have big numbers of supporters and fans in stadiums, I wish we could have that too during our games abroad, he said. “I once got a gold medal and there was no one to celebrate the victory with except my team,” he said. “It would have been nice to see people from back home who cheer for you at these moments.” One of his big supporters is his coach Mohammed Subaai, coach of the judo national team. “As much as you give him and listen to his instructions, he supports you back,” said Al-Hazmi. According to Al-Hazmi the coach had been not only a coach but also a father figure who cares about him and the rest of team and their benefits.
“Who is coaching you through the years really matters,” he said. That is why one must meet his coach’s expectation and observe being punctual and disciplined as well.
He tried to pull a fast one over his coach while in Egypt, an incident which he regretted doing. The coach asked him to get back to the hotel from the club running for six kilometers. He did as requested, but got tired a few minutes even before reaching the hotel and hailed a cab which took him to the hotel. On reaching the hotel, he forgot to pay the taxi fare and the driver complained to his coach who discovered to his astonishment that he’s been had by his pupil.
The support is always needed, and he said that he can not deny how the President of Youth Welfare Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, his deputy-president Prince Nawwaf ibn Faisal, and Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal have been great supporters morally and even financially.
The only game Al-Hazmi enjoys watching by a woman is also judo. He has been a big fan of Japanese woman Tamura Ryoko, 32, who became world champion four times at the women’s - 48kg. He also likes the Cuban woman judoka Yurisleidys Lupetey,23, who is the 2001 world champion and bronze medalist in Athens 2004 Olympic Games in -57kg. He wanted to see Lupetey in action but never had the chance. Nevertheless a nice coincidence happened when he met her by accident in an elevator in a hotel in Cairo in 2005.
“I was speechless and afraid of her since she looked really tough, but I was overjoyed to see her in the flesh”.
“Not yet, not at all,” he said of women taking up judo not to mention them excelling in the sport. “Especially here in the Gulf they are not used to getting tough and strengthening their muscles. “Its going to be awkward and uncomfortable for her,” he said.
Invented by Japanese Jigoro Kano in 1882, judo was introduced to the Kingdom in 1975.
Judokas like Al-Hazmi and other martial arts aficionados and coaches from both sexes meet from time to time at an interactive website called www.alfonon.net.
