| Badminton champ Hadia Mohamed Hosny looks to improve on her Beijing performance |
| By Randa El Tahawy |
| With the London 2012 Games, Hadia Mohamed Hosny, a 23-year-old pharmacy graduate from Ain Shams University, is making her second trip to the Olympics — and this time she doesn’t have to travel very far to get there. When she’s not competing in international badminton tournaments, Hosny works on her Masters degree in Medical Biosciences at the University of Bath, about two hours away from London. She is spending part of her summer break this year representing Egypt and Africa in the Badminton Women’s Singles event. Similar to tennis but played on a much smaller court with a lightweight shuttlecock and lighter rackets, badminton became an Olympic medal sport at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Hosny competed in Women’s Singles at the 2008 Beijing Games, but was knocked out in the second round of competition. The only Egyptian to qualify for any badminton event in this year’s Olympics, Hosny is already in England preparing for the tournament, with the women’s singles matches scheduled from July 28 to August 4. In an email interview, she shared her expectations and personal goals for London. Edited excerpts: What are your expectations for these Olympics? I feel very excited and sometimes a little bit worried as it is my second Olympics, and this puts more pressure on me. In Beijing, I won my first round, which makes me greedy this time — I want to perform better than last time and make Egypt proud of me. My expectations aren’t that great, however, because Asians are better at this sport. But I’ll do my best and the rest is on God. Tell us about your you explain your journey to the London Olympics. My journey to the 2012 Olympics started right after the last Olympic games in 2008. I had to keep my ranking as high as possible so that I wouldn’t have to play in qualifications in all the tournaments, but instead compete within the main draw directly. The world ranking points started counting for London 2012 at the beginning of May 2011, and qualification closed on April 29, 2012. I had to be either the top-ranked African to qualify as the continental representative or be included in the 46 top world players by nation. I fulfilled both criteria, thank God: I was the top African by the end of April, and I took the final place in the qualifying 46; at that time I was ranked 102 internationally. This time they have changed the Olympic tournament rules. We are not playing in elimination rounds like last time. Instead, it will be the same as the Youth Olympics in Singapore 2010. The first round starts with groups of four players, and they will take the top player in each group to an elimination round of 16 players. How long have you been a badminton player, and why did you choose this sport? I have been playing since I was 12, so almost 12 years now. I played lots of sports before and won some medals in rhythmic gymnastics. I also played squash and did horse riding. I had to stop gymnastics for a year because of a knee injury, and I returned to playing squash. Fortunately, my school coach used to be on the national badminton team and told me to come and play badminton. I had no idea what it was before then. I practiced for three weeks and came in third in a national tournament — from there started my road in badminton. What are the biggest challenges you have faced as an athlete? In 2008 I found out about my qualification for the Olympics just two weeks ahead of Beijing, and in the first round I played a higher ranked Mexican girl — fortunately I won. The biggest challenge I faced was in 2010, when I was in my third year of pharmacy at Ain Shams. Just before the African Championships, my performance was really bad, and I felt I could lose to youngsters. But with will, confidence and ability, I fought hard in the African Championships. It was my first time to win a gold medal in the continental championships, and I become the first Egyptian to win it in badminton, exceeding all expectations. Looking at 2012 , my biggest challenge was being so close to my competitors in world ranking, especially during the last qualifying days. But with some confidence and God’s will, thank God, I can say now they were the best challenges but not the toughest ones. What are your plans for the future as an athlete? I hope to keep competing in my sport whether for fun or professionally, I haven’t decided yet. I am also dreaming of getting involved with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which would combine sports with my studies. How do you see badminton in Egypt? I don’t think it’s Egypt’s strong point in the Olympics, as we haven’t reached the Asian level yet. The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians and Taiwanese dominate the podium in badminton. But I think we have improved steadily, so hopefully we can see good results. Badminton in Egypt needs a lot of work and enhancement, like a stable coach for the national team and national team practices all throughout the year and an indoor hall just for training the badminton national team. |
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