Six years on, aged 22, he has put himself in position to seek a senior Olympic medal at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games.

Since taekwondo became a full Olympic discipline at Sydney 2000, Egypt has won two medals. Tamer Bayoumi secured bronze in the men's under-58 kilograms flyweight class at the Athens Games in 2004, and at the Rio 2016 Games, Hedaya Malak Wahba also took bronze in the featherweight under-57kg category that was won by Britain's Jade Jones.

In February of this year, Eissa earned the opportunity of adding to his country's collection of Olympic medals when he won one of the two Tokyo places on offer in the men's under-80kg class at the 2020 African Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in Rabat.

His opponent in the decisive contest, Firas Katousi, had edged a decision over him after a scoreless men’s under-74kg final at the African Games, held in the same Moroccan venue, and had also beaten him 9-8 at the 2019 World Championships in Manchester. 

So, Eissa's 3-1 victory would have had a special personal resonance.

The Egyptian – who won his first African Games silver back in 2015 – had prepared himself for his Olympic trial with a highly successful 2019 season.

His African Games silver was preceded by winning a medal of the same colour at the Summer Universiade in Naples, where he lost 6-4 in the men's under-80kg final to South Korea's Minwoo Kang.

On the main tour his season had opened with victories at the Luxembourg and Australia Open events, and his post-Rabat momentum continued as he took a silver medal at the Sofia Grand Prix, losing 12-10 in the final to Saleh El Sharabaty of Jordan.

Another silver medal was his at his next competition, the Military World Games in Wuhan, where he lost 11-7 in the final to Maksim Khramtcov.

The Russian then beat him in the Grand Prix final semi-final in Moscow en-route to becoming a home gold medallist, with Eissa just missing out on bronze after losing the match-off against Uzbekistan’s Nikita Rafalovich.

That frustration would soon be followed by the satisfaction of earning an Olympic place and the challenge of adding to Egypt's proud record at the Games.