AWAD AL ABOUDI: LARGER THAN LIFE

Strongman Awad Al Aboudi is not one for showing his emotions but he is setting his sights on a successful year after suffering a big disappointment in 2006.

The National weightlifting champion was finalising his preparations for the Doha Asian Games in December when he had to concede that an injury picked up in preparing for the big event would rule him out. It was a severe blow for one of Jordan’s best loved sportsmen who was in the best form of his career.

“It was a blow but I am over it now and raring to go,” said the father of eight who has been National Champion for a staggering 17 years. “I am training hard now and looking forward to the Asian Championships in Korea at the end of the year and also the Pan Arab Games in Egypt.”

The Pan Arab Games have provided Aboudi with his greatest moments in the sport. For it was in 1999 that the star tasted gold in his home country – a moment he still regards as his proudest to date.

Introduced to the sport by his uncle, Wajeeh Al Aboudi, Al Aboudi was in the National Youth team just a month after his first lift in 1989. Titles soon followed and along the way he was a bronze medal winner in the 1998 World Championships in Turkey as well as a bronze medalist at the Arab Championships in the same year.

“That year - 1998 - was a turning point in my career,” he recalls. “I was so close to winning gold and realised I needed that extra effort to achieve it. After training hard I managed to win at the Pan Arab Games in Amman. It was a very proud achievement for me and still the biggest moment of my career.”


Now the streamlined Al Aboudi is in the best shape of his life as he continues a strict fitness regime of swimming and jogging to pursue more gold for his country. His training regime will continue throughout the summer with the two big championships coming up and few will argue that the iconic figure can resume his goldrush through to the year’s end.