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Victor Bolorunduro
Doha
The heart-breaking disappointment of missing out on the podium at the home IPC Athletics World Championships two years ago eventually turned out to be a blessing for him, Qatar's Abdulrahman Abdulqader, the world paralympic champion in shot put, has said.
"The Doha failure inspired me to train harder and I was fired with detrmination to succeed. So I kept pushing myself to the limit. This fetched me first a silver medal in Rio Paralympics last year and now the gold medal in the men's shot put (F34) at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships," Abdulqader said in an interview with Qatar Tribune.
The 29-year-old athlete, who initially focused on javelin throw, added that the lowest point of his career till date was finishing fourth at the Doha championships.
"What made it more devastating was that going into the championships, I was the world record holder in shot put - 10.68m, which I posted at the GCC championships held two months before the competition. Obviously, I went into the Doha championships with high hopes," he recalled.
"But at the championships, I ended up in the fourth place which was not only disappointing but also saddening. The competition was so tough that despite even going beyond my personal best, the three medallists obliterated my record.
"I was all set to secure at least the bronze medal at that competition but the guy who was to have the last throw bettered my record by 0.09m and snatched the bronze from me. Until the last throw, he was nowhere close to my efforts as his he had poor throws of 10:50m and 10:60m. But with his last throw, as well as the last throw of the competition, he cleared 10.93m to condemn my 10:84m throw to the fourth position," Abdulqader said.
He added,"Getting so close to the medal and yet losing it in such a dramatic way was really a bitter pill for me to swallow and I was really depressed for many days.
"The memories of that competition remain with me till today. The Doha competition was so tough that the records achieved in shot put are still existing (WR 11.50m) and nobody has been able to break. I was so sad that I thought of even ending my career. But thanks to the encouragement of people around me my coach Ahcene Bouteldja, family, and of course the federation officials, I managed to return to shot put.
"My coach really did a lot of work on me and he pushed me to do more and I'm glad that the partnership between us has really worked and I believe together, we can achieve more," Abdulqader said.
Speaking about the secret of his success, the soft-spoken athlete, who started his career in 2008, said,"Staying with one coach without changing since I started my career has been very beneficial to me. I know my coach and he knows me very well and we have built a strong bond over the years.
"When you change a coach, you will have to, may be, change techniques too and I think it is not the best for an athlete because it is like beginning all over again with a new coach. I want to attribute my success as an athlete to the consistency I've been able to achieve with my coaching crew."
On how he started out as an athlete, the Qatari field star noted that he was spotted by Mohammed Lazzouli, who is a physio with the Paralympic Committee in January 2008.
"When he approached me and asked me to join the training, I was skeptical but after some time I began to like the activities. At that time, most para-athletes in Qatar were more into track events rather than the field contests. But I decided to take up shot put and javelin and I had my personal best in javelin in 2010."
Abdulqader noted he was intially doing the javelin throw, shot put and discuss throw but better results made me solely concentrate on the iron ball later.
"I was more into the javelin throw in the beginning. At the same time, I was also having training in shot put and discuss. By 2013, there had been a remarkable improvement in my performance in shot put and I seemed to be doing better in it than javelin. I started to devote my time to it and the rest, as they say, is now history."
Asked about how he felt winning Qatar's first-ever silver medal at the Paralympics, Abdulqader said the feeling was incomparable with anything else.
"I felt on top of the world winning the silver medal in Rio. It was a big reward for my nine-year training (since 2008) and I felt really fulfilled. It was a massive achievement indeed and when I saw Qatar's flag raised aloft, I was really overwhelmed and felt like crying."
"My appreciation goes to the Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, the President of the QOC HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al Thani, the QOC Secretary-General, all officials of the Qatar Paralympics Committee and many others for their tremendous support over the years," he said.
On his future plans, the thrower whose personal best is 11:38m, which he achieved at the 2017 London championships, said,"I want to win gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia and then the gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games. I see myself as being able to do better than I've done at the moment and I'm always striving to improve myself."
He added that though his focus at the moment is shot put but he is still much involved in javelin and discuss as well.
"I average about 50 throws daily in shot put and when I'm not too tired I throw javelin and discuss as well during training. I am also aiming for medals in javelin and discuss, I've been very close to winning a medal as I've ended up in fourth and fifth places in the events in several competitions. With time, I believe I will get medals in the two events as well," added the athlete, who planned to be a coach or sport administrator after retiring.
