The national champion is forced to work as a cashier

Sometimes a chance meeting can change a life path. This is what happened to Hanin Nassar from the village of Araba, who soon became a basketball player in the national league and a high jumper and the first Muslim Israeli champion in athletics.

It all started four years ago in total, when coach Anatoly Shafran encountered the young girl during her studies at the Wingate Institute, and immediately recognized the potential thanks to her height (1.82 meters). He offered her to start training with him, and Nassar, then 19, first asked to see what it was all about. She went into Google, wrote “high jump” and dived into the details. The click was immediate. “I really liked it,” she says in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. “I really liked the competitiveness”

Very quickly Nassar decided to give up the orange ball in favor of the new love. In the first competition, really as an amateur, she jumped 1.55 meters, but the progress after that was tremendous, and her first big moment came at the national championships. This is not only the win, but the fact that she managed to beat Daniel Frenkel, the Israeli champion and one of the most prominent athletes here in the last two decades. They both achieved the same result, 1.78, but Frenkel disqualified once more.

This week we met the 23-year-old Nassar at the Super-Pharm branch in the Ayalon Mall in Ramat Gan, where she works, to try to find out what caused her to “lose height” in the past year. She works part-time at the mall, a third-time job as a physical education teacher at a school in Lod, and after that she still has to concentrate on high jump training. “

What exactly are you selling in the mall?

“Natural and sports products”.

Do people recognize you?

“Not much. On the other hand, when they see my height straight away they ask if I’m an athlete.”

Until two years ago, Nassar worked as a cashier in a supermarket in Araba, but since then she has moved to the big city to be close to her club, Maccabi Tel Aviv. .

In its second season on the track, Nassar increased ranges, soaring to a personal best of 1.83 on the way to winning a second Israeli championship. This was also the fifth best result of all time of an Israeli high jump. With the success came the sponsors, with Mercantile Bank and Nike adopting it as sponsors. But it was then that Nassar got into a bad period, and for the first time had to deal with failure. “Today I think it’s actually good that I failed,” she believes. “It let me check why it happened and what needs to be done to leave it behind. Now I’m getting back to myself because I started the season with 1.80. Not bad for a start.”

The sponsors also stayed in the weak year?

“No, they announced that they were getting off me, but I believe it was because of the corona. I also had a hard time in the corona, especially in the first closure when I was at home and lost a lot of training.”

The disappointing year came after a failure in its first and only international competition to date, the European Under-23 Championship held in Sweden. In rainy weather Nassar jumped to a height of 1.68, finished in 22nd place in the qualifiers and did not reach the final. But the really difficult experience, even scary, has nothing to do with the results on the runway and took place even before boarding the plane. Nassar received threats on her life on social media because she “represents the scores,” and then posted a post that caused a great deal of controversy. “Forget that I jump high. In front of anything that tries to interfere I do not stand, I just jump,” she wrote at the time.

How did this affect you?

“I actually would not want to expand on that. I was content with a response that I only represent myself. I quite disliked the fact that athletes from the sector did not give a shoulder and did not help me. Believe that I am now much more immune from such cases.”

Interested in politics?

“Definitely not. I have no interest in politics.”

What are your hobbies?

“I really like to write. I believe I will write at one point or another a book about my journey in athletics. I am also strong in the yoga section.”

Is there an athlete or athlete you admire?

“Jumping to the heights of Qatari Mutaz Barshim. I would very much like to meet him and learn from him.”

Numbers that are sometimes difficult to stand up to a demanding coach like Shafran. He shouts a lot?

“I do not have one bad word to say about Tully, he is like my second father.”

Shafran adds candidly: “Yes, sometimes you have to shout to get results. Besides, I have a lot of good words to say about Hanin.”

“You can immediately see that she received an excellent education at home. Polite, respectful of adults, and of course an athlete with high abilities. Expect that by the end of this season she will achieve 1.87, maybe even 1.90. But not enough talking, should be done.”

The stated goal on the part of the coach and the jumper is clear: Paris 2024, because the flight to Tokyo is already late.

What will you need to do to be there?

“If I do above 1.90, I will get there. I do not so much care what others achieve. Here in the country, if Daniel does a great result I will praise her. I am only busy with my results.”

Shafran lowers expectations, at least in the near term, and estimates that Nassar will reach its peak only in eight or nine years: “I believe that age 29, after accumulating all the experience, is optimal. Hanin is expected to have a long and interesting journey.”