Bouquets of roses and the bosom of the family... at the reception of the Syrian hero Hind Zaza

Damascus-SANA

Bouquets of roses, hugs of the family and shouts of joy were received by the Syrian table tennis player Hind Zaza today at the entrance of the Public Authority for Radio and Television in the Umayyad Square upon her arrival back from the Japanese capital, Tokyo, after the end of her participation in the Olympic Games.

The 12-year-old could not hold back tears of joy the moment she arrived at the Umayyad Square and saw her family, friends, sports colleagues and the national media waiting for her. Through it a high national flag in international forums.”

The joy of the parents at the return of their daughter from Tokyo is not matched by the joy and their pride in her reaching the Olympic Games reaches the sky. Zaza’s mother, in a statement to SANA reporter, expressed her gratitude to President Bashar al-Assad and his wife for their encouragement, expressing her confidence in her daughter to win the Olympics alongside the upcoming world championships, while the player’s father considered that just His daughter's qualification to the Olympics is an achievement in itself, and she will participate in the upcoming Olympics with strength and will achieve the desired medal.

The head of the Table Tennis Federation, Bassam Khalil, pointed out that the arrival of the player Zaza to the Olympics as the youngest player is an achievement in itself, and we will work according to a specific strategy that includes local and external training camps to upgrade the player’s skills to ensure that she reaches the next Olympics with the required technical and skill level, enabling her to compete for medals.

The Minister of Information in the caretaker government, Imad Sarah, and a number of members of the People's Assembly, the Executive Office of the General Sports Federation and the Executive Committee of the Sports Federation in Damascus participated in the reception.

Zaza, who participated as the youngest player in the Tokyo Olympics, was the focus of international media attention, despite her loss to veteran Austrian Liu Jia.

Zaza, born in Hama in 2009, plays in the Governorate Club. She started playing the game in 2014 and won many local championships. In 2018, she achieved fourth place in the Al-Amal Championship in Thailand, and in 2019 she was crowned with the gold of the National Women’s Olympiad, the bronze of the Oman International Championship for U-12 years, and the silver of the Bahrain Championship for the U-13 category. She won five gold medals for teams in the West Asian Championship in Jordan, and in 2020, she won the West Asian singles under 12 gold, in addition to the West Asian gold qualifying for the Olympics.