The Karate Kid

Jordan’s karate kings kicked their way to a bag of medals at the Doha Asian Games in December to establish Jordan as one of the continent’s leading countries in the sport. www.joc.jo caught up with one of the stars.

Mo'utasem Bellah Kheir loves the taste of medals. He has collected plenty but his highlight came at the end of 2006 when he won bronze at the Doha Asian Games. He is definitely hungry for more.

The pharmacy student has become one of the Kingdom’s most established athletes and fell in love with the sport after watching Bruce Lee films as a kid. Little did he know that after taking up the sport as a youngster he would become such a big star!

“I loved watching karate movies,” said the 22 year-old. “I watched my first one around the same time that my father was encouraging me to play sports. He took me to the Dragon Sport Centre and I really took to karate.

“At just seven, I won my first silver in the Al Hassan Championship in 1992, and then became the Juniors Champion for seven years in a row. I graduated to the National Youth Team where I was training every day and participating in all local championships until the year 2000, then I joined the full National Team - under 75k.”

Like many sportsmen in Jordan, Mo'utasem has to strike the right balance between his passion for karate and finishing his studies but the star has a wise head on young shoulders.

“I know how important my studies are. I want to open my own pharmacy when I graduate but I also want to carry on my sport so it is difficult getting the right priorities at times,” he said.

His big taste of international action came in his first Asian Championships in China where he came fourth. It spurred him on though to many medals at international events including silver in the 2004 Pan Arab Games in Algeria. He intends to go one better later this year in Egypt.

After these championships, the youngster won gold in the Middle East Championship in 2005 held in Amman for under 80K, He also won silver in an international event held in Germany that same year. These were valuable events building up to his dramatic performance in Doha.

It will be a busy year of studying and training for Mo'utasem but the star knows that one year from today he could be proudly showing off a Pan Arab Games gold medal on the walls of his very own pharmacy!