Wushu fighter Khalid Hotak sweats in his chest padding as he spars with a teammate in a Kabul gym, defying financial worries to prepare for the Asian Games as best he can.
Afghanistan is to compete in 15 sports in Hangzhou, the nation’s first Asian Games since the Taliban seized power in 2021.
The Games, the biggest in history and boasting more competitors than the Olympics, officially open today after a delay of a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: AFP
Hotak and his three teammates begin their training for the Chinese combat sport, similar to kung fu, early each day at the federation’s training center, stretching and honing their techniques to bring their opponents down.
“I would often watch Chinese films... I would watch Jet Li and I liked the strength of his body and when I learned about him I realized he was a wushu fighter,” Hotak said of the Chinese-born movie star. “That’s why I went to a club and registered myself. I would stand in the back row, but then I found the potential in my body.”
Hotak, 30, won bronze at the last Asian Games in 2018 — a first for Afghanistan in wushu. He is going for a medal again tomorrow, the opening day of the wushu competition in Hangzhou.
Photo: CNA
“Medals from the Asian Games are important to all of Asia, but to us they are even more important,” said the father-of-one, referring to the obstacles Afghan competitors must overcome.
Afghanistan’s economy has struggled through decades of war, a crisis deepened by international sanctions on the banking system and foreign assets after the Taliban government came to power.
The team say that the Taliban support sport, but there is no government financial backing for athletes competing on the international stage.
Hotak gets by on 13,000 Afghanis (US$165) as a sports adviser in the government’s physical education department.
His teammate, 29-year-old Nasratullah Habibi, who has won several international medals in the sport, earns a decent living by owning three wushu clubs, but he admits his family’s welfare still weighs on his mind and that young men have abandoned sport to focus on trying to find work.
“When I’m here training for the Asian Games my mind is also on my family and how I’m going to feed them, and when I’m with them I’m thinking about my upcoming matches,” Habibi said.
The team’s coach Mahfooz Wafaa said that none of the national team take a salary for their efforts.
“Everyone is training at their own expense. Some of the boys say: ‘Coach, we don’t have the money to pay the taxi fare to attend training,’ but because sport is our passion and the responsibility is on us, we have no other option but to fulfill our responsibility,” Wafaa said.
Afghanistan’s representation at international competitions since the Taliban takeover is complicated by several factors.
Atal Mashwani, spokesman for the Afghan General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports, which now manages the affairs of Afghanistan’s Olympic committee, said athletes would not bear the Taliban government flag officially in China, but added: “What is important is they will be going and competing there representing Afghanistan.”
Besides harboring dreams of winning gold at what he says would be his last major competition, Hotak said he always wanted to encourage his children in sports.
His only child is 18 months old, but he has plans for her already.
“When she grows up I will make her a very good athlete,” he said.
At the Games yesterday, Taiwan’s women’s table tennis team defeated the Maldives 3-0 in Group C of the preliminary round at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in Hangzhou.
Cheng I-ching defeated Aishath Rafa Nazim 11-3, 11-3, 11-1; Chen Szu-yu beat Laisa Fathuhulla Ismail 11-4, 11-4, 11-6; and Li Yu-jhun downed Fathimath Jumana Nimal 11-3, 11-2, 11-5.
However, they then fell to a 3-2 defeat to North Korea in their second tie.
Chen was beaten 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6 by Kim Kum-yong; Cheng defeated Pyon Song-gyong 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-4; Li was blanked 11-3, 11-8, 11-8 by Cha Su-yong; Cheng routed Kim 11-7, 11-2, 11-3; and Chen fell to a 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4 defeat to Pyon in the deciding match.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team also faced the Maldives in the opening tie in Group D and also cruised to 3-0 victory.
Peng Wang-wei routed Mohamed Shaffan Ismail 11-2, 11-1, 11-5; Huang Yan-cheng beat Moosa Munsif Ahmed 11-5, 11-5, 11-7; and Liao Cheng-ting downed Akhyaar Ahmed Khalid 11-6, 11-5, 11-2.
As of press time last night, Taiwan men’s team were leading Kazakhstan 2-1 in their second tie in Group D.
Taiwan’s men’s volleyball team fell to a 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 defeat to India.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
RSS