Special Features
UAE Produce First World Bodybuilding Champion
An unemployed 29-year-old Emirati athlete Tariq Rasheed Saeed Al Zaabee basked in glory when he flexed his rippling muscles to win a gold medal for UAE in the finals of the inaugural Men’s World Bodybuilding Championship at Al Ahli Club Indoor Stadium on Friday.The former soldier who suffered from a slipped disc back injury for eight years, overcame the pain barrier to become UAE’s first ever world champion in bodybuilding in the under 70kg weight class. "I did my best and I thank Allah for this achievement," said Tariq for whom the enormity of his feat had not really sunk in when speaking to Khaleej Times after being adjudged the winner over Iran’s Raftarhamedani Vahid and Saudi Arabia’s Ali Ismail Jail. He thanked his coach Ali Mohammed Abdullah and Osama Al Shafar, president of the Emirates Bodybuilding Federation for their support.
Two other Emiratis — Amir Ibrahim Hassan Mohammed (Under 75kg) and Mohammed Essa Rahma (under 90kg) — managed to beat tough competitors to win bronze medals. Rahma’s performance was significant since he pushed his more experienced compatriot Amaar Al Khansoori into fourth place in the closely contested Light Heavyweight class in which Hungary’s Zoltan Toth, winner of the Mr Universe title in England just three weeks ago, outmuscled his rivals. Iran’s Ayari Mahdi had to be content with the silver medal.
UAE finished in third position in the team championship with 60 points edging out Thailand who also bagged one gold and two bronze medals. Iraq finished in second position (70) with two gold and two silver medals but Iran (107) emerged as the new power in the sport when they emerged overall team champions winning two gold, six silver medals and a bronze.
Iran’s Super heavyweight athlete Haghi Fereydonn was also acclaimed the ‘Champion of Champions’ after winning his maiden world title in the competition conducted by the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (WBPF). The 34-year-old hulk who weighed in at 116kg and stands tall at 180cm, was placed third at the Asian championships in Thailand in August but is now destined for greatness after giving a near flawless display of muscle power to fend off competition from Germany’s Mario Hemmer, compatriot Rahnamaeian Hasan, Austrian Manfred Petautschnig and Pakistan’s Atif Anwar Ahmad.
“Two months of solid training full time paid rich dividends,” said Iran’s head coach Mohsen Yazdani Kachoei, a former world champion himself in 1999. “Bodybuilding is very popular in Iran after football and wrestling,” said Mohsen when asked for their reason for success. “We have 10,000 gyms in Teheran. We were confident of doing well here because we were second in last year’s world tournament,” he said.
Middle weight Bagher Zadeh Reza was their other gold medallist but there was heartbreak for their Light Middleweight contender Panahi Mokarram who was edged out by Thailand’s lone gold medallist Sitthi Charoenrith.
“The judges had a difficult job. One or two decisions may be the audience didn’t like too much. Overall I think the judging was good,” said Axel Bauer, WBPF Vice-President (Europe). “Disappointments there will be. No loser will say they are happy. There can be only one champion in each category unfortunately. We had nine judges from different countries and results were fair,” said Paul Chua, Secretary-General of WBPF.
Each winner received a cheque of $5,000, runner-up $3,000, bronze medallist $2,000 while the fourth and fifth placed finalists received $1,000 apiece.
Final results
Light Fly weight (under 55kg): 1. Pham Van Mach (Vietnam) 2. Ehsan Khajavi Jafarabad (Iran) 3. Uus Muhammad (Indonesia)
Fly (under 60kg): 1. Yousif Ahmed Hasan (Iraq) 2. Mahdi Heydari (Iran) 3. Jiraphan Pongkam (Thailand)
Bantam (under 65kg): 1. Sazali Abd Samad (Malaysia) 2. Alaa Hlail Mohsin (Iraq) 3. Somkhit Sumelhowetchakun (Thailand)
Light (under 70kg): 1. Tariq Rasheed Saeed Al Zaabee (UAE) 2. Raftar Hamedani Vahid (Iran) 3. Ali Ismail Jail (Saudi Arabia)
Welter (under 75kg): 1. Omar Handhal Hussein (Iraq) 2. Assad Hameed Jaafar (Iraq) 3. Amir Ibrahim Hassan Mohammed (UAE)
Light Middle (under 80kg): 1. Sitthi Cahroenrith (Thailand) 2. Panahi Mokarram (Iran) 3. Alakrash Nasser Mohammed (Saudi Arabia)
Middle (under 85kg): 1. Bagher Zaheh Reza (Iran) 2. Emad Abdulla Bani Alharbarit (Saudi Arabia) 3. Ankur Sharma (India)
Light Heavy (under 90kg): Zoltan Toth (Hungary) 2. Ayari Mahdi (Iran) 3. Mohammed Essa Rahma (UAE)
Heavy (under 100kg): 1. Christian Klee (Austria) 2. Asadollahi Alireza (Iran) 3. Michael Zimmermann (Austria)
Super Heavy (over 100kg): 1. Haghi Fereydonn (Iran) 2. Mario Hemmer (Germany) 3. Rahnamaeian Hasan (Iran).
