On the calamitous morning of 22nd March, 2016, 25-year-old Najim Laachraoui, accompanied by Ibrahim El Bakraoui and an unidentified third malefactor, ambled into the check-in area of the Brussels airport at Zaventem and carried out a ghastly pair of nail-bomb explosions. The attacks which claimed the lives of 32 ill-fated civilians besides all the three perpetrators from ISIS, left yet another irreparable scar on Europe’s landscape after the catastrophe that had rocked the French capital last November. Investigations revealed that Najim, formerly a student of Electromechanical Engineering was the chief bomb-maker behind both these terrorist strikes.
Two months on, another Laachraoui, the younger Mourad is making the headlines in Belgium once again, but for reasons completely unrelated and set in a prestigious backdrop of the highest level of sporting achievement for his country.
21-year-old Mourad Laachraoui has beaten all odds to win gold at the recently concluded European Taekwondo Championship 2016 held at Montreux, Switzerland. By virtue of this breathtaking feat, he has earned for himself the ticket to compete under the Belgian flag in the Olympic Games at Rio this summer.
In the semi-finals of the 54kg category, Mourad defeated the Russian Stanislav Denisov, the bronze medallist from last year’s world championships, before going on to thump Spain’s Jesus Tortosa Cabrera 6-3 in the final to secure the greatest laurel of his Taekwondo career till date. In the Olympics, however, he will have to face off against opponents of higher body weights than his own since the 58kg happens to be the lightest category that will feature in Rio 2016.
Mourad’s rise through the ranks has been far from any sort of smooth incline whatsoever. As he strived to find his feet in the Taekwondo arena, his sporting career dealt multiple setbacks over the years. His brother Najim departing in 2013 to join the extremist group in Syria and then returning as an impenitent suicide bomber to cause massive destruction in the heart of his homeland which led to the Laachraoui family coming under the scanner despite Mourad’s best efforts to do his nation proud – all of that could’ve easily taken a toll on him, shaken his resolve enough to steer him off his purpose for good.
'I fought, I fight, I will always fight.' – is what he had told the press conference following the Brussels attacks in March. Now with the Olympic stage beneath his feet, Mourad Laachraoui has proven true his earlier statement to his fellow Belgians regarding his representation for the country in Taekwondo.
