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Beyond borders

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Kickboxer Mostafa Sabeti is looking forward to more opportunities to compete internationally once he becomes a Canadian citizen.

Mostafa Sabeti’s long road to obtaining Canadian citizenship is finally nearing an end, and although the process took a toll on the former world kickboxing champion, he isn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Sabeti’s home country of Iran is ninth-last out of all countries on the Henley Visa Restriction Index, which ranks countries based on citizens’ freedom to travel internationally. Passport problems cost him several fighting opportunities early in his career, including offers to kickbox professionally. So Sabeti, who grew fond of Vancouver while winning a kickboxing world championship there in 2002, applied for immigration to Canada.

He took the written citizenship test on March 23, more than eight years after applying, and is now awaiting the ceremony – to be held in four months – that will make his citizenship official, and open up more opportunities for him to compete internationally as a Canadian, and maybe even as an Olympian.

“Under international rules you can’t compete in amateur fights after 35 years old. After that you can compete as a professional, but not in amateur stuff like the Olympics, which brings more glory for your country,” Sabeti said. “I lost some of the best years of my career going through this process, but I’m still happy because I’m 30 now and I have five years more to compete as an amateur, and I still have hope to compete in the next Olympic games.”

Kickboxing is not an Olympic sport, so Sabeti is adding boxing to his list of practised martial arts disciplines that also includes karate and kung fu. He won a B.C. kung fu championship in 2009 and was invited to the national tournament in Toronto, but was unable to participate because he was not yet a Canadian citizen.

He’s following the same path in boxing, improving his provincial record to earn a trip to nationals, where top finishers are invited to the national team’s camp. If team members perform well at international events like the Pan-American Games, they qualify for the Olympics.

Sabeti says he’s fortunate the citizenship process didn’t take longer; the wait time for Iranians is often more than six years. With the minimum three-year wait for immigrants to apply for citizenship, the process can take more than a decade in total.

“For people like me in athletic careers, these 10 years are too much,” Sabeti said.

He immigrated to Vancouver in August 2006 with wife Solmaz, also a martial artist.

“She was a big help to me. Beginning a life in a new country is very hard. You have to work hard, support your family and survive somehow. We had more of a challenge because it’s a totally different language and culture. All these things can make you really tired in the first few years, but if you have good passion and ambition you never give up and keep going forward.”

Passion and ambition are two things Sabeti has plenty of. After arriving in Vancouver and “starting with zero,” he began renting out a gym in Vancouver by the hour, using it to teach martial arts classes. As his clientele grew – mostly by word-of-mouth – he rented the gym for longer periods until he could teach out of his own small second-floor space in South Surrey.

In 2009, he opened Golden Glory Fitness and Martial Arts in White Rock, where he now lives. He trains children and adults with athletic goals ranging from simply shedding a few pounds to competing in tournaments.

Sabeti began his own martial arts training at age 10 to defend himself from bullies in his hometown of Tehran. But what started out as basic self-defence soon became tournament-focused training after his sensei noticed his potential.

“The first time I went to a tournament, I was terrified. I said ‘there’s too many people here, I don’t want to do a tournament.’ But my sensei pushed me and encouraged me to do it. I lost, but it gave me hope and passion that if I work harder and have more confidence, I can be a winner. I won my next tournament which made me very happy because everybody cheers for you and talks about you, and they know you as a good person in your school and your neighbourhood. That gave me lots of passion to keep going higher and higher.”

Sabeti was on the Iranian national kickboxing team by 18, and his list of accomplishments now includes 10 Iranian championships in various martial arts disciplines, and three world kickboxing championship silver medals in 2007, 2008 and 2010 in addition to his gold in 2002.

He plans on updating his trophy collection this year, when he will compete in the 2011 IKF World Championships in Orlando, Fla. this July.

Sabeti is on his way to earning a business degree at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and eventually he wants to combine his knowledge of business and athletics to expand Golden Glory and find sponsors for his more promising students.

“Im hoping to expand to a bigger place and get a ring and better facilities for my students, because they have lots of potential. They are very good kids and one day I think you might find some world champions coming from White Rock.”