The sixth version of the Arabian Memory Championship (AMC) took place on the 5th and 6th of November 2017 at the wonderful city of Istanbul in Turkey inside one of the spectacular hotels at Istanbul’s cost. The competition was organized by “Arabian Memory Championship Foundation” headed by Dr Riadh BENSAOUCHA who is also the founder of the Arabian Memory Championship and the official representative of the World Memory Championship in the Arab world. Chief Arbiter Phil CHAMBERS came from UK to represent the World Memory Sport Council. The international arbiter Ahmed LAMINE CHALA was in charge to control the tests during the championship. Arbiter’s team was supervised by Lakhdar ACHOUR with the assistance of the main arbiter Moez TRIGUI. Championship organizing team members were as follows: Fares TAGMOUNT coordinator for AMC in Turkey, Adel BENSAOUCHA financial manager, Bouziane AMALOU media manager, and Adnan ORABI responsible for the inauguration and closing ceremonies. On November 4 and prior to the competition, a team of 30 arbiters from different nationalities attended an arbitration orientation program presented by the international arbiter Ahmed LAMINE CHALA. Afterwards, the participating athletes joined a special Q&A session and were provided essential information about the competition and got proper answers for all questions regarding the forthcoming tests.
List of nationalities of the 64 participant athletes:
- 25 from Algeria
- 11 from Tunisia
- 8 from Palestine
- 6 from Yemen
- 3 from Lebanon
- 2 from Iraq
- 2 from Jordan
- 1 from Egypt
- 1 from Syria
- 1 from KSA
- 1 from UAE
- 1 from Bahrain
- 1 from Mauritania
- 1 from Libya
Distribution of the participant athletes:
- 41 male and 23 female
- 42 adults,19 Juniors, and 3 Kids
- 20 old competitors and 44 new ones
Merited medals for the tests were as follows:
- Names and Faces test
Golden:
- Adults: Djamila TURKI – Algeria
- Juniors: Mohamed MAASHER – Yemen
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Silver:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Ahmed AL TIMIM- Yemen
- Kids: Shadi DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Abdallah BELHOOL- Yemen
- Juniors: Aya Insaf BOUALI- Algeria
- Kids: Nishan DANAA- Palestine
- Binary Numbers test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Silver:
- Adults: Madjeda TIDJANI- Algeria
- Juniors: Salsabil NOUASRIA- Tunisia
- Kids: Shadi DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Mohamad Imad Eddine BENACEAUR- Algeria
- Kids: Nishan DANAA- Palestine
- Random Words test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Salsabil NOUASRIA- Tunisia
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Silver:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Omnia BOUALI- Algeria
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Madjeda TIDJANI- Algeria
- Juniors: Ahmed AL TIMIM- Yemen
- Kids: Shady DANAA- Palestine
- Abstract Images test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Walid HENNI- Algeria
- Kids: Shady DANAA- Palestine
Silver:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Mohamad Imad Eddine BENACEAUR – Algeria
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults:Sana ZAKARNEH – Palestine
- Juniors: Aya INSAF BOUALI- Algeria
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
- Random Cards test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Walid HENNI – Algeria
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Silver:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Mohamed MAASHER- Yemen
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Mohammed BODWILAH – Yemen
- Juniors: Salsabil NOUASRIA – Tunisia
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
- Speed Numbers test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Nishan DANAA- Palestine
Silver:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Walid HENNI – Algeria
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Nadjet BELOUAD – Algeria
- Juniors: Mohamad Imad Eddine BENACEAUR – Algeria
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
- Historic and Future Dates test
Golden:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Mohamed MAASHER- Yemen
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Silver:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
Bronze:
- Adults: Hakim BLOUAD – Algeria
- Juniors: Walid HENNI – Algeria
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
- Spoken Numbers test
Golden:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
Silver:
- Adults: Hakim BLOUAD – Algeria
- Juniors: Mohamad Imad Eddine BENACEAUR – Algeria
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Bronze:
- Adults: Seddam DJEBBAR – Algeria
- Juniors: Walid HENNI – Algeria
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
- Random Numbers test
Golden:
- Adults: Nasser AZIRI – Algeria
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
Silver:
- Adults: Madjeda TIDJANI- Algeria
- Juniors: Mohamed MAASHER- Yemen
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Bronze:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Walid HENNI – Algeria
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
- Speed Cards test
Golden:
- Adults: Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq
- Juniors: Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia
- Kids: Shady DANAA – Palestine
Silver:
- Adults: Mohammed BODWILAH – Yemen
- Juniors: Salsabil NOUASRIA – Tunisia
- Kids: Hadil HALLAF – Algeria
Bronze:
- Adults: Seddam DJEBBAR – Algeria
- Juniors: Khaled ABELAH HALAF – Algeria
- Kids: Nishan DANAA – Palestine
The top Champions in each category are as follows:
- Adults:
- Nasser AZIRI – Algeria – scored 3208
- Mustafa AL HAMAMI – Iraq – scored 3135
- Hakim BLOUAD – Algeria – scored 2747
- Juniors:
- Yassin BEN ABDALLAH-Tunisia – scored 2556
- Walid HENNI – Algeria – scored 1948
- Mohamad Imad Eddine BENACEAUR – Algeria – scored 1568
- Kids:
- Hadil HALLAF – Algeria – scored 418
- Nishan DANAA – Palestine – scored 284
- Shady DANAA – Palestine – scored 220
Following is a list of country scores:
- Algeria – 2726
- Yemen – 1693
- Tunisia – 1668
- Lebanon – 1184
- Iraq – 1140
- Palestine – 646
- Jordan – 311
- Syria – 175
- Egypt – 144
- KSA – 130
- UAE – 113
- Bahrain – 78
- Mauritania -63
- Libya – 0
Scores where announced on the evening of Nov 6, 2017 during a splendid ceremony presented by Hala Tijani and the media figure Belkassem SHIHAWA. Celebration started by a traditional Turkish music performance then a speech was given by the founder of AMC Dr Riadh BENSAOUCHA followed by a speech of the Palestinian consul in Turkey. All participant memory athletes were presented participation certificates. Also arbitrating team members were merited certificates of AMC Authorized Arbiters and received shields of honor respectively. Five arbiters among them, for the first time, have been promoted to be arbiters of the second degree as recognition for arbitrating in at least four past memory championships. These distinguished arbiters were Oum Elkir BENAOUI, Lakhdar ACHOUR, Moez TRIGUI, Ouarda ASAIDI, and Fatma KAMOUN. Arbiter ahmad Lamin CHALA has been privileged to be arbiter of the 3rd degree, the highest at AMC, as recognition for his distinguished efforts that contributed to AMC success. Likewise the championship organizing team members were honored respectively, Fares TAGMOUNT, Adel BENSAOUCHA, Bouziane AMALOU, and Adnan ORABI. The heads of the Arab delgetions received shields of honor: Asma BENACEUR from Algeria, Dr Iyad HAMMOUDA from Palestine, Ahmad BAHSINE from Yemen, Adnan ORABI from Lebanon. Afterwards, medals were delivered to the aforementioned champion athletes.
Then there was a special live show to demonstrate instant remembering power that surprisingly amazed the guest audience. Yemen athlete Abdallah BELHOOL recited a list of hundred random words. Algerian athlete Djamila TURKI was able to remember a large number of faces associated with complex names. Algerian champ Nasser AZIRI recited a long list of instantly displayed random numbers with high precision. Then arbiter Moez TRIGUI was nominated as the most active memory trainer in the Arab world and has received accordingly a shield of honor, a certificate, a financial reward, and was promoted to be the first AMC expert memory trainer authorized to train “Memory Master Certificate 3rd level” inside Tunisia. Then the Iraqi champ Mustafa AL HAMAMI received the certificate of “Arabian Memory Master” for being the unique athlete who fulfilled all conditions to get this extraordinary certificate.
The ceremony was a chance to honor the media delegations that covered all disciplines of the championship. Accordingly, shields of honor and certificates were presented to Algerian TV, Shorouk Media Channel, An-Nahar Channel, Nesma Channel, Anees Channel, Desire channel, Makmelen channel, Algeria Media Center, Radio diwan fom Tunisia, Al-Hewar Newspaper, and many other media parties.
As a remembrance for his remarkable achievements and great efforts to train and empower Arab youth and spread the concepts of sharper memory across Arab countries, Dr Riadh BENSAOUCHA received “IBN SENA Golden Medal” from the British “Brain Trust Association” and received also “Prince KHAN Statue” Award from “International Establishment for Peace and Prosperity” from India. Both rewards were presented to him by World Memory Sport Council Chief Arbiter Phil CHAMBERS.
Trophies were presented to the top 3 champions from each category (Kids, Juniors, and adults). The celebration ended by officially announcing the name of the Arabian Memory Champion for the year 2017 Nasser AZIRI from Algeria who received the championship golden trophy and was invited to cut the celebration cake and the audience had the chance to take wonderful photos with the all the champions to capt the lovely moments.
Next day, on Nov 7, Arab leagues joined an extraordinary touristic tour organized by the Arabian Championship Foundation. The journey began by visiting Miniaturk Exhibition Park and then visiting Sultanahmet and Hagia Sophia historic mosques. After having lunch in the spectacular Gulhane Park, athletes visited the remarkable Basilica Cistern and then enjoyed free shopping. The touristic day ended by a wonderful night tour in a luxurious cruise along the Bosphorus overlooking majestic sightseeing spots in Istanbul and leaving unforgettable moments in everybody’s memory.
Translated by : Salem NAJJAR