RAMALLAH, Wednesday, Many people play sports for several reasons. The players at the Fighting Zone Club started practicing Muay Thai as a hobby. Little did they know that this will take them to the international Muay Thai championships and bring them back home with gold and bronze medals.

Dana Akef, 21, has been practicing Muay Thai for three years so far. She is considered a vital member of the Ramallah-based Muay Thai Fighting Zone Club, and a several times winner of medals, the latest of which was winning a bronze medal in the Muay Thai World Championship that was held in Thailand in 2023.

Akef said she did not find any difficulty when she started practicing Muay Thai because she used to play Kung Fu from a young age.

‘Despite society usually associating martial arts or rough sports to a woman losing her femininity, practicing Muay Thai helped me a lot in increasing my self-confidence, reducing stress and controlling my emotions,’ she said. ‘One of the main reasons that encouraged me to continue practicing Muay Thai was to stop gender stereotyping in sports.’

Ahmad Abu Dukhan, 25, the technical director and main coach of Muay Thai at the Fighting Zone Club, has been practicing this sport since he was a kid and has won several worldwide championships.

Abu Dukhan said that this sport was born out of a need to defend the kingdom and soldiers back then.

‘Muay Thai, which translates to ‘Thai Boxing’, is the national sport of Thailand. It is a martial art and was born out of a need to defend the lands in Thailand,’ he said. ‘Today, this sport has become widely recognized.’

Muay Thai underwent several changes and developed over the years to eventually become the sport that is known today, Abu Dukhan added.

‘What makes Muay Thai a special sport is the ability to use all parts of the body including kicks, punches, knees, fists and elbows. The most beautiful thing about this sport is that there is no routine and there are certain methods to play it,’ he said.

‘The sport nowadays has an international organization called the International Federation of Muay Thai Associations (IFMA). It’s officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC),’ said Abu Dukhan, expressing hope that the Palestinian team will be able to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games.

‘Today, in order to say that the Muay Thai sport has become distinguished in Palestine, is because of many years of hard work, dreams and will. The path was never easy, but as I said, the sweetness of this is in its difficulty, and today the Palestinian Muay Thai player is considered a real competitor,’ he said.

‘Although we won two gold medals for the second time in a row, and this is the first time it happened in the history of sports in Palestine, the road ahead is nevertheless still long and full with obstacles,’ he added.

Abu Dukhan does not like to be called a social media influencer, although he has over 118,000 followers on Instagram and more than 500,000 followers on TikTok.

During a previous interview with WAFA news agency, Abu Dukhan argued that in order for players to become professional at some point, a few changes have to be made so they can participate in world championships.

Explaining these changes, “We have nearly 300 players in the Fighting Zone Club, but only 30 of them are capable of participating in international competitions. To be a professional player in Muay Thai, you need to intensify exercises and training hours, organize your time and pay attention to your diet,’ he explained.

Ahmad Helal, 22, a student at Birzeit University, won the gold medal in the 86 kg category in 2023.

‘I started practicing this sport by chance,’ he told WAFA ‘I have been suffering from being overweight for years. But later I found my passion in this sport which helped a lot in releasing my anger and organizing my time.’

Helal encourages all young people to practice Muay Thai, ‘because it is not just a sport, it is a lifestyle.’ He said that this sport affects not only the physical appearance but also the mental health of the person practicing it.

Commenting on winning the gold medal in the 86 kg category in 2023, Helal said that winning a gold medal and raising the Palestinian flag has a different feeling not because Palestine simply has to exist in a competition but also because Palestinian players, despite all the circumstances imposed by the Israeli occupation, now are able to compete and win.

‘I am looking forward to doing better in this sport and go further, especially after Muay Thai was officially included in International Olympic 2028, which will enable Palestinian players to be included in the list of countries that achieved Olympic medals,’ he said.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency