©Getty Images

The achievement of Ahmad Abughaush in winning Jordan’s first Olympic taekwondo medal - a golden one - at the Rio 2016 Games created a wave of enthusiasm for the sport in his native country.

Among the principal figures surfing on that wave right now is 22-year-old Saleh Elsharabaty, who is coached by the man who guided Abughaush to his landmark victory, Faris Al-Assaf.

"Now in Jordan taekwondo is the number one sport, more than football," Al-Assaf told World Taekwondo magazine.

"All the children in Jordan play it in school, and in clubs after school."

Jordan had been aiming to make a big mark at the 2022 Youth Olympics in Senegal, but that event has been postponed to 2026 amidst the disruptions of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, however, Amman has become the epicentre of home athletes' dreams after being chosen by World Taekwondo as the venue for the Asian Olympic qualification tournament after it had been moved from its original setting of Wuxi in China.

While the date for this event has yet to be set, it will loom large in the minds of Jordanian athletes, including Elsharabaty.

He will be hoping to maintain the momentum he achieved in the men’s under-80 kilograms category last year, before competition began to be held up, as he achieved his first Grand Prix title victory in Sofia.

The landmark win was concluded with a scoring kick in the final seconds which saw him defeat Egypt’s Seif Eissa 12-10.

Saleh Elsharabaty, right, is an Asian Games medallist ©Getty Images
Saleh Elsharabaty, right, is an Asian Games medallist ©Getty Images

Elsharabaty started in the sport aged seven, although he left it in his teenaged years before making a return in 2016.

"I used to be a bad boy, and my mother wanted me to be a good boy, so she sent me to a taekwondo centre," he told World Taekwondo.

"Now, I am not a bad boy!"

Al-Assaf recalled: "At the start, he did not listen to me, he was lazy! But not now! Now he has started to get good, and he is getting the medals."

Medals of increasing importance began arriving in 2018, when he took silver at the Asian Championships in Ho Chi Minh City and then reached the Moscow Grand Prix final, where he lost 29-11 to one of his weight’s big names, home fighter Maksim Khramtcov.

He followed that up by taking bronze at the Asian Games in Jakarta, losing 4-2 in his semi-final against Uzbekistan’s Nikita Rafalovich.