Despite the Corona pandemic ... the besieged Gaza Strip organizes an international home karate championship

Gaza-Ruwaida Amer

A sports center in the Gaza Strip resorted to the establishment of an international karate championship via the Internet, to overcome the stoppage of sports activity due to the Corona pandemic, which caused the coaches to resort to individual training of players in homes and follow them through video clips.

Sport, including karate, is an outlet for Gaza residents in all age groups, as a way to overcome the blockade imposed on the Strip for years.

The Bisharat International Center in Nablus held the Palestine International Home Championship via the Internet in cooperation with a number of international referees from different countries, as 11 countries (Palestine, the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, the Philippines, Australia, the Sultanate of Oman participated in this tournament). Syria, Jordan).

The tournament targeted different age groups for both sexes, including more than a hundred players, and the Gaza Strip had a share of the advanced positions for the only age group in which the under-14 and 15-year-old participated, with only players Abdel Rahman Dabbash and Aida Al-Bayari.

"Despite my happiness to win the bronze medal from 17 players from different countries, I was very sad when we stopped training because of the Corona pandemic," the heroine returning 15-year-old Al-Bayari told Al-Jazeera Net, noting that she had not stopped training since I started karate six years ago. Encouraged by her family.

"Karate is a means of self-defense and does not cause any harm to the competitors, so we enjoyed the club exercises with my friends and we felt a great emptiness due to the stopping of the group exercises."

She has won several awards at local and international championships, but this international championship considers her a victory over the conditions of the home quarantine caused by the Corona pandemic.

Abdel-Rahman Dababash, 15, who won second place in the Palestine International Male Home Tournament for Al-Jazeera Net, said that he started playing sports four years ago, after he watched the game on TV and loved it very much, which led him to join a karate team to develop its level and compete internationally.

"During the Corona crisis, I continued training from home, where I recorded a video and sent it to the coach for a performance evaluation. Sometimes I train on the beach alone because karate needs a large area to move freely."

Coach Hassan Al-Rahi said to Al Jazeera Net, “I launched your sport campaign at your house to urge the players to continue the exercises and not to stop them because of Corona, then I considered continuing the exercises through the videos, until international home tournaments appeared, so we decided to participate in them, and we prepare new age groups of ten players to participate in Championships in Hungary and Dubai, too.

New tournaments
The success of the first international championship encouraged all players in Gaza to strive to participate in other tournaments, including Mona Abu Shaaban (17 years), who says to Al Jazeera Net, "The feeling of the possibility of competition and victory restored our energy and our activity in the training, and we care to know our level in karate compared to Players from other countries, this is a nice opportunity for us to compete with them and develop our skills from home. "

and sayThe CEO of Bisharat International Center, Amin Bisharat, who launched the first international home championship for Al-Jazeera Net. "The idea was launched out of our desire to find an incentive for our trainees and to maintain their athletic level by communicating with them via the Internet, and transformed them into the reality of the center's good relationship with international athletes referees from Morocco. Jordan very much welcomed the contribution to bring the idea to light. "

"We announced the tournament through social media, and soon 11 countries announced their desire to participate in it. The competition mechanism was based on the registration of the player or the player a video clip and sent for evaluation by the tournament rulers who chose the winners according to the rules of the game from among more than a hundred players and players." From different age groups. "

Bisharat confirmed that the success of the tournament pushed the center to continue in this direction, as it is planning to do a sports camp that brings players from different countries to participate in exercises online also under the supervision of the best certified coaches.