| London, Aug 10 : Taekwondoka Rohullah Nikpai came
for a gold medal but a bronze was enough to fill his eyes with tears,
as he won the first medal at the London Olympic Games for his country
Afghanistan.
Nikpai has already made history as he gave
Afghanistan its first ever Olympic medal in Beijing 2008, also a bronze
in the men's 58 kg, reports Xinhua.
"It's the second consecutive
time that I've won the bronze medal at the Olympics. I'm very happy
because this medal is very important to my country. I had hoped it would
be a gold," said the 25-year-old.
"Getting a medal is very
important to all the countries in the world, but especially for
Afghanistan. I love Afghanistan," he added.
"I have to thank
everyone who supported me but, from the bottom of my heart, I would
especially like to thank all the Afghan refugees who came here to
support me. It means a lot to me, and I'm very happy for that and for
the bronze medal," he said.
Nikpai was raised in an Iranian
refugee camp after his family fled the violence in Kabul. He took up
taekwondo at age 10 while still in exile and returned to the Afghan
capital in 2004.
Since returning from the Beijing Olympics, he has started his own engineering company.
Until
Beijing, Afghanistan had taken part in 12 Olympic Games since their
first appearance at Berlin 1936, but had never had a medal winner.
© IANS
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