The last day of 2020 gave a piece of happy news to Pakistanis that Emma Alam won the 29th World Memory Championship. She finds an opportunity in the adversity of pandemic and received training from the Institute of Human Memory Development International (IHMD) and defeated 300 participants from all over the World.
World Memory Championship was founded by Tony Buzan, one of the intellectual minds of the world, and Raymond Keene in 1991. The basic purpose of this championship is to check and test the incredible powers of the human mind and memory. Emma Alam competed for the 29th memory test and decided to try her luck.
She won the three-day competition in more than 10 disciplines in which her memory was tested in various ways. She along with her fellow Kisa Zehra broke many World records and set new winning points for those who will pursue in the future. Another brilliant mind of her team, Abeerah Ather, ranked 7th in this Global Memory Championship. Emma Alam, Abeerah Ather, Syeda Kisa Zehra, and Syeda Nabeela Hassan won thirteen medals and broke four world records set by the predecessors. Incredible success of Emma Alam finds many supporting hands in her journey and most prominent one is her instructor, Samia Alim, and the team of Institute of Human Memory Development (IHMD).
Her team not only prepared her for this World Memory Championship but also assisted her in the success of the 3rd Asia Pacific Memory Championship in Malaysia and 28th World Memory Championship in China.
COVID -19 has prevented organizations to hold any type of national and international championships and events. But, the World Memory Sports Council, Asia Pacific Sports Council, National Memory sports Council of Pakistan, and Global Chief Arbiter Lester collaborated to organize this in a way that all participants competed at the same time from 16 different countries.
Raymond Keene, president of World Memory Championship, appreciated the participation of 300 participants from 16 countries and praised the success of Emma Alam in this competition. Emma Alam also says that she was practicing more than 7 yours daily for the last two years and she is amazed at the incredible powers of the human mind to process information. She added that she will participate in next year’s competition with greater preparation. Samia Alim, instructor of Emma Alam also expressed her happiness on the success of her students in a TV interview and encouraged other Pakistani students to participate in this Olympic of mind sports.
