Egyptian Stars Open Up On Competing at the Highest Level During Ramadan

Over the last month, many Muslim squash players across the PSA Tour have been observing the holy month of Ramadan – a month which sees Muslims around the world engage in dawn-to-sunset fasting, prayer and reflection.

The breaking of this fast, which is taking place at sundown today, marks the end of this period. But just how significantly are the rest and recovery clocks of players altered during Ramadan effected, and how do they go about training during this period?

Below, we talked to Egyptian quartet Nour El Sherbini, Nouran Gohar, Karim Abdel Gawad and Aly Abou Eleinen about the month of Ramadan and how they go about competing during their fast.

What is Ramadan?

El Sherbini: “For us, it is the month that we all wait for. It’s different, I love it myself. It’s the best thing to spend it in Egypt. Everyone is doing the same routine, the day is shifted and turned over.

“We wait for the sunset and have a lot of gatherings, we have a lot of family and friends in the same place. It’s different, it’s something that we love spending with our family and friends. 

“It’s the whole month, it’s 30 days, and we fast from sunrise until sunset and we usually pray five times a day. It’s a month when you are very close to God’s will, and you have a different routine. We try to eat two meals only. So when it is sunset, we eat once, and then we wait until before sunrise until we eat again, and we do this for 30 days.” 

Gawad: “So basically you start before the sunrise, and you go until the sunset. After sunset, you can eat. In few hours you can eat and drink. Other than that you have to stop eating and drinking anything else. 

“It’s part of our religion and it helps you quit your bad habits and helps people gather more and start praying more.”

Gohar: “When we say Ramadan, people think about fasting, and obviously it’s a big part of it, but the whole purpose of it is to get you closer to God, to work on your faith. We pray at night as well.

“So it teaches you to be patient, to appreciate the little things, like normally we don’t appreciate water, as kids, but then if you do Ramadan then you start appreciating this and it makes you feel that that you’re privileged. It makes you feel for the poor people and think about how they are feeling when they don’t get to eat or drink. 

“It’s one of the months that we really look forward to as Muslims. It’s one of the months that you know that you can slow down and just reflect. It’s like meditating but in a different way.”

How do you find it as an athlete during Ramadan?

Gawad: “It actually depends on the person, the athlete. Some players can do fasting during play, but some people find it really hard. It’s basically about how, physically, your body adapts to fasting during playing competitions. 

“During training, I think most athletes, basically all athletes, do fasting because they can manage the schedule. You can start training an hour or two before the time that you drink first. So it’s easier and you can manage it with some light sessions before Iftar (the main meal of the fasting day, which occurs at sunset every day of Ramadan) and then some tougher sessions after Iftar. 

“So during training it is easier, but during tournaments it is much harder. You put 100% effort in during the match, the amount of calories that you burn in a match is a lot. Some athletes can’t do this, their body can’t handle playing an hour or an hour and a half during fasting, while some athletes can.

“You have a whole year after this to do the days you missed during Ramadan. So it depends on the athlete. Some people can do this, some people can’t.”

El Sherbini: “It’s hard of course, because our job is all to do with our body and you need the body to be working in every single session at one hundred percent. 

“It’s very hard to find the balance between having the energy and recovering well without eating. You don’t have a lot of meals and you’re not giving your body what it really needs. You need to also be active as a player. 

“Most of us train before we eat. But after sunrise, we wake up, and then we go to train. We then train for two to three hours before sunset – so it’s hard to get your body to work as efficiently as you want. It’s harder of course during tournaments, because you’re fasting and it’s a long day that the body needs to recover. 

“If your match is before, then you have no water, no food, so it’s tough. With the stress and pressure of the match it’s tough as well. You can train before, but during a tournament it is totally different. It’s tough for us, but everyone tries to do their best and sometimes if your body feels very slow, you don’t have a lot of energy, but we try to do it.“

What does your daily schedule as an athlete look like during Ramadan?

Gohar: “In Egypt, for example, our day can start from 2pm and then I personally train at around 4pm or something. I end by 6pm when it’s our Iftar time. That’s then when I can eat and then I can have a proper meal. We then pray, and then you have another squash session after that which can be around 10-11pm.

“You then still have a recovery session after that and then you can be done by 1am. Everything is still open and then you can go back home, chill a bit, then pray, read the Quran. You then have your last meal of the day which is around 3:30am-4am, and then that’s when we sleep. We then sleep and wake up at 1pm or 2pm.

Eleinen: “It’s definitely not easy, but I enjoy it, you know, for the whole month, especially when other people close to you are doing it as well. I adjust my sleep schedule a little bit. I wake up a bit later, let’s say around noon, and then I would do some mobility, nothing too crazy, and then I would make my sessions a bit later, maybe around 4.30 pm. I would then finish and then have a light meal, come back to training, do like an hour and a half of intense play, and then after I would have a proper meal. 

“I’d then maybe nap for an hour or two, have another meal, and by then it’s probably like two or three in the morning, so I’d then get some sleep and repeat.

“During Ramadan most of my intense sessions are after sunset. So before sunset, I usually focus on light stuff. I would do some mobility and I would focus on some accuracy work so it’s not intense training before Iftar. After Iftar is when I bring in the intense sessions. So yeah, Iftar is when sunset hits and there’s Magara prayer and that’s when you sit and have your first meal of the day.” 

How does you schedule change when outside of Egypt?

Gohar: “It varies from one region to another. If you’re in Egypt, it’s not the same as if you’re in the US or in the UK. So sometimes it can get tougher from one region to another. It gets tougher if it’s during summer because the day is longer as well.

“In the US, I struggled big time because I had to have three sessions before Iftar, from 9am to 8pm. I would have my two squash sessions and my fitness session. So it was very, very hard. And if you go to anyone in the US and tell them, can we hit like at 10pm or 11pm, they will be like, are you crazy or what?

“Whereas, in Egypt, it’s not the case. So this year, I actually went back to Egypt to be closer to my family as well. And I felt like it would be easier for me to train there.”

What is your favourite food to eat during Ramadan?

Gawad: “There are a lot of good desserts during Ramadan, for me, though I have two favourites which are Kunafa (crunchy, buttery dessert made with shredded pastry layers enclosing a creamy soft milk pudding) and Basbousa (semolina cake). Especially at home, the desserts that they make at home are different. I’m lucky because my mum cooks very well, so she does a very good Kunafa.”

Eleinen: “I would say my grandma’s Roa’a, which is basically a meat pie. It’s a famous Egyptian dish.”

El Sherbini: “I love Ramadan’s food a lot. There are specific meals that we just eat in Ramadan and the desserts are amazing! I love this Mango from Kunafa – it’s a dessert.”

Gohar: “Oh my God. Like, food is actually a problem in Ramadan, because we have all the desserts, especially. Some people actually gain weight during Ramadan because if you have all of these desserts, it’s a lot of sugar, it’s so nice, it’s so delicious.

“So obviously Kunafa is definitely on top of the list. Om Ali [Egyptian bread and butter pudding] as well, I like desserts in general.”

Do you have any particularly fond memories of playing squash during Ramadan?

El Sherbini: “I won the British Open last year during Ramadan, it was very hard. I think in the final I wasn’t [fasting], but throughout the rest of the tournament I was. So that’s a good memory. 

“Even if you are not fasting in the day, it’s not only about a certain day that you ate or you drunk, it’s about doing the same process as anybody. 

“Your body gets used to this routine and you’re not giving it the same energy or the same food or the same recovery. It’s definitely different when you win a tournament with this situation. It’s hard and I always say it’s not just about the lack of food, not drinking is harder. You want to drink water whilst playing, so it’s hard. Winning a big tournament while on Ramadan is something big for me.” 

Gohar: “I remember we had the British Open back in 2019, that’s when I won it. It was during Ramadan actually, and I had my mum with me. And obviously, it was very hard to fast during that time, but I had my mum supporting me and it was really nice to see. 

“I had matches around noon and we could break our fast at 9pm during that time because it was in summer. It was in June, and my mum was doing Ramadan, and every single day she would watch me at noon and not eat anything from like 2am until 9pm. 

“So I felt sorry for her, but I was very happy that in the end, it paid off, and I won my first British Open.”