Minister of Youth and [Archives:1997/50/Sports]

Sports Honors Golden Champ
A special celebration in the honor of the Yemeni champion, Waddah Al-Maqrami who secured the 1st place in West-Asian Taekwondo contests, was held in the Ministry of Youth and sports. The celebration was attended by Dr. Abdulwahab Raweh, the Minister of Youth and Sports; Sheikh Mohammed Al-Matari, the minister’s advisor and some sports officials, representatives of various sports clubs as well as the head and members of the Yemeni Taekwondo Association. In his opening speech, Dr. Raweh said, “this victory is an achievement which we are all proud of, and behalf of all the people present here, I congratulate our golden champion who brought honor to all of us.” Waddah, the golden champ, said to Yemen Times: “I hope to achieve more international victories, and I think I can do so with the help of God.” Later on, Dr. Abdulwahab Raweh and Mr. Hussein Al-Awadhi, the secretary-general of the Yemen Olympic Committee, presented the golden champion with YR 200,000 from the Youth Support Fund, and YR100,000 from the Yemeni Olympic Committee. This is considered to be the biggest amount of money ever given to a Yemeni champion by the two institutions. On an another level, the Yemeni Taekwondo Association has decided to promote the Yemeni champion from a ‘1 Dan’ Black Belt to ‘2 Dan’ Black Belt in a special celebration later on.
Mr. Hussein Al-Awadhi declared that supporting those Yemeni athletes, who secure international championships, will be continue. “It will not stop here, but the Olympic Committee offers them some special tournaments to have their abilities improved, and then to make them more capable of achieving more championships in the future,” he said. He indicated that Waddah’s achievement is a good omen for Yemeni sport which proved that the efforts made by the Ministry of Youth and Sports brought forth some Yemeni champions like Waddah in Taekwondo, Abdullah Al-Azzani in wrestling and Abdulrahman in Track and Field games. “We hope that 1998 will be a golden chance for those who want to prove themselves in athletics” said Mr. Al-Awadhi.
——
[archive-e:50-v:1997-y:1997-d:1997-12-15-p:./1997/iss50/sports.htm]