On Women’s Day, Let’s Recall Omenya Abdel Kawy’s Victories

By Maydaa Abo El-Nadar

CAIRO, MAR.8 (SEE) - March 8 is the day which turned from a painful memory to an international celebration. Creativity and pain are correlated partners for the woman. In spite of challenges, women prove their success everywhere. Therefore, SEE celebrates  International Woman's Day.

One of the most prominent figures in the squash world is the Egyptian right-handed player Omenya Abdel Kawy, born on the 15th of August 1985.

[caption id="attachment_39828" align="aligncenter" width="445"] Photo Credit: PSA[/caption]

An extremely successful champion at a junior level, Abdel Kawy was the first female to bring for Egypt a title from the British Junior Open. This was in 1998 at the competitions of the Girls’ Under-14 (GU14).

She climbed the ladder fast as she was the champion of the GU15 in 1999 and 2000. Throughout the four consecutive years, she won the GU17’s finals.

In addition, she was the first Egyptian female to reach a WSF World Junior Championship’s final, an encounter that took place in the Malaysian city of Penang, in 2001, against the Malaysian squash legend Nicol David who won 3-0 (9-2/9-4/9-2).

The Pharaoh did not surrender, as at the tournament’s following edition in 2003, in Cairo, she snatched the title from her fellow citizen Amnah El Trabolsy, by a score of 3-0 (9-0/9-6/9-4), on her dad’s birthday.

[caption id="attachment_39830" align="aligncenter" width="306"] Photo Credit: Dave Lintott Photography[/caption]

In the 2008 WSF Women’s World Team Championships, Abdel Kawy was amongst the Egyptian team that surprised the world after it snatched the title for the first time in its history.

“It was a great achievement, as I think it was the first time for an Egyptian women’s team to win a world championship in any sport,” Abdel Kawy commented previously.

In 2016, she was honored by the World Squash Federation (WSF) for being the first player to represent her country for the tenth consecutive time at this prestigious tournament.

Her breakthrough year came in 2010 when she was included amongst the World's top 5. That year, she also was the first Egyptian female to become the runner-up at the PSA Women’s World Championship.

Upon her retirement in 2018, the squash legend, who was the first Egyptian female to be amongst the World’s top 4, mentioned, “Every time I go and train, I am so tired, I just don’t have the energy, and I am so pressed for time.

"I keep telling my fitness coach Mohamed Ali from Gym ProPlus ‘you have me for an hour, just do what you can to keep me standing up!’ And that’s not enough to play squash the way I want to play squash.”

[caption id="attachment_39835" align="aligncenter" width="462"] Raneem El Welily, Nouran Gohar, Nour El Sherbini, Omneya Abdel Kawy (SquashSite)[/caption]

She decided to be a fulltime coach. In this regard, she expressed, “Well, I just want to keep helping others and get them to benefit from my experience. And if I had only one kid, I would give him or her all the help I can give.

" I don’t want to pick and choose who I am going to work with, I would rather let them choose me. I want to train them and follow them on the events, and at the end of the day, I just love squash so much, I want to stay involved, I want to give back.”