Martial arts grandmaster defends his title at age 77
His wife Hawa is the SA team manager and his son Shihan Aslam won nine gold medals.
An Isipingo Beach pensioner has defended his full-contact martial arts masters title at the world championships in Spain, a title he has held since 1995.
Allan ‘Kancho’ Mahomed, at 77-years-old, would be forgiven for putting his feet up to relax, but instead this energetic great grand master returned home from the champs with four medals.
Martial arts runs in the Mahomed family and Allan was joined on the flight to Spain by not only his wife Hawa, who is the SA team manager, but also his son Shihan Aslam (37), who won nine gold medals in the nine divisions he participated in.
Shihan, who was trained by his father, is also the SA team’s head coach.
The Mohamed family helped the SA World Martial Arts Organisation (WMO) team claim a magnificent 64 medals at the world championships held from 5 to 10 October.
What makes this achievement even more amazing is that the SA team only consisted of 17 athletes.
The youngest team member was five-year-old Salaamah Mahomed, who won a silver medal, and the eldest contestant at the champs was Allan, who won a gold, two silvers and a bronze.
Allan enters the world champs every year and won four medals last year in England.
“I’ve been fighting for 70 years,” he said. “I was born in Durban and started boxing at the age of seven. When I saw Bruce Lee’s films, I changed to martial arts at the age of 16 or 17.”
Along his illustrious fighting career, Allan has met many legends at world champs, including Steven Segal in Dubai in 2011 and Billy Blanks in 1981.
He started training juniors and seniors at the age of 18 and still owns two gyms in Durban and Overport, where he has imparted his knowledge for the past 25 years.
“I will fight until my dying day. It will be difficult for me to stop. One day a better man will beat me.”
For the masters title, Allan faced a 64-year-old US Navy sailor, who he defeated in the first round.
“Martial arts takes a lot of discipline. It keeps you away from the wrong things. That’s why I trained all my children. It gave them discipline. All they did was go to school and the gym.
I’m proud to say all my children went to varsity. They didn’t keep any wrong company and they didn’t get up to any nonsense.
My wife is always with me at the competitions and next year she will accompany me to the world champs in America.
I will train to once again defend my masters title, if it is God’s wish.
I do not do this for name and fame but I want to encourage people and children that if an old man like me can do it, anyone can.”
