Necessity is the Mother of Invention [Archives:1997/51/Sports]

Zaid Al-Qasmi, vice-president of Yemeni Body Building Association and the sole referee of this game, suffered a lot during his training due to lack of training facilities and equipment. But he could make sports equipment, a thing that has become his means of living. Yemen Times met him and filed the following interview.
Q: How did the idea of making training equipment start? A: Body building needs several equipment and fitness halls. But most of the equipment I found were old or were gifts. Importing such equipment costs a lot of money and the country could not afford that. The Body Building Association faced big problem because a large number of players rushed to start body building and the equipment was very limited. So I started to make some equipment locally. The idea developed and I managed to design any specific piece of equipment according to international standards and at low prices.
Q: Where from do you get the material to construct this equipment? A: These materials are available and I established a small workshop for cutting and transforming them as the equipment requires.
Q: Have you made equipment for other games? A: Yes, since I saw the high prices of some training equipment such as table tennis, billiards and snooker, I made some designs myself. You cannot compare between the locally manufactured and the imported equipment.
Q: Have you proposed to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to buy the equipment you make? A: I offered to sell my equipment at low prices to the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Because I personally suffered during training, I don’t want others to suffer. But there was no positive reply.
Q: Do you think the Ministry is neglecting body building? A: Yes, attention is only paid to football. If the officials pay field visits, they will know a lot of facts about sports. Some young men opened halls at their own expense and could receive many youths to alleviate the pressure on clubs.
Q: Have you established a training hall for fitness? A: Yes, I have opened some halls at the beginning of December entitled “Hawaii Recreation Center” which includes fitness halls and body building halls as well as billiards, snooker and table tennis halls.
Q: As vice-president of Yemeni body building association, do you see any positive changes in 1998? A: There is progress in the association activities, but if there is no attention paid to these games by the Ministry of Youth and Sports many sports activities will cease to exist.

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