Afghan triumph amid misery

Most recent news about Afghanistan has been sad - for instance, three friends of a dear friend of ours were the international aid workers senselessly killed by the Taliban last week - but we are now rejoycing this Afghan triumph in Bejing:

Taekwondo fighter grabs Afghanistan' s first Olympic medal
BEIJING (AFP)

Rohullah Nikpai hoped his Olympic taekwondo bronze medal would help bring life back to Afghanistan through sports after three decades of conflict.

"After the long-time war at home, I have won this medal. I think it is a good message for the peace and future of Afghanistan," the 21-year-old said after grabbing Afghanistan' s first Olympic medal in any sport Wednesday.




He beat world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain 4-1 in a -58kg bronze-medal play-off.

"My training situation is like the situation surrounding my country," said Nikpai, who started training in the Korean-born martial art 11 years ago following his older brother Habib.

The Nikpai brothers usually train in Kabul where he said "sports facilities are not so good." He has trained under a Korean coach in a pre-Olympic training camp in South Korea.

"We've tried hard to get this result, and I hope it will help improve sports in my country," Nikpai said.

One of the four athletes here from Afghanistan, Nikpai knelt and kissed the mat after overwhelming Ramos.

"I hope to try harder and go to the next Olympics to produce a better result," said Nikpai, who grabbed the Asian championship bronze after finishing 33rd at the world championships here last year.

An Olympic sport since Sydney 2000, taekwondo is popular in Afghanistan, where it is by far the most practised combat sport.

Afghanistan' s previous best Olympic finish was a fifth place by Mohammed Ebrahimi in the 1964 freestyle wrestling.

Afghanistan' s most notable link with the Games is that the 1979 Soviet invasion of the country led to a US-led international boycott of the games in Moscow the following year.

Nikpai was to be rewarded with 50,000 dollars promised by an Afghan mobile phone company to whoever gets on the podium in Beijing.

His teammate, 23-year-old Nesar Ahmad Bahawi, who won a 68kg silver at the World Taekwondo Championships last year, was to compete here on Thursday.

A hero's welcome will await him in Kabul after President Hamid Karzai called Nikpai after his victory, an aide said.

The medal was also cheered on by fellow athletes in Kabul as televisions interrupted normal broadcasting to show images of the athlete's winning match.

"The president called him and congratulated him," Karzai's chief spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP in Kabul. The president "encouraged him and told him he had brought pride to Afghanistan."

Once Nikpai returned home, he would be rewarded "appropriately," he added.