THE ASSYRIAN ATHLETIC CLUB

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Brief Profile

Born on July 1, 1968 in the city of Baghdad, Iraq, Zaya was a former Canadian boxer and champion in the 54kg weight class. He started his carrer when he was only 11 years old in 1979 at the Assyrian Athletic Club in Baghdad (formerly known as Nadi Tamous).

In his early years, he was able to win the Iraqi National Junior championship in the 28kg weight class (1980).

At the age of 15 in 1983, he transferred to the Police Club (Nadi El-Shourta) in Baghdad, Iraq and there he continued his training and only after 5 months he won the Iraqi National championship in the 48 kg weight class so that only months later he was to win the Iraqi National Championship in the 51 kg weight class and be honoured by the Arabian National Champion, Ibrahim Jimaa.

In 1986, he won the silver medal in the Iraqi Nationals and received an award for the best technical Boxer of the tournament from The 2 time Asian Champion, Ismail Khalil.

His family decided to leave Iraq in 1986 during the Iraq-Iran war but only for Zaya to find out that his love for boxing will come to a stop as he was in transition from Iraq to his new home as he and his family were living in Iran as refugees.

In 1988, Iran held its 1st ever boxing tournament with 180 boxers were Zaya participated and won the silver medal in the 60 kg weight class. Soon after, he returned to his 57kg weight class, and after competing again, he won the TEHRAN and IRAN national championships. In that same year, he won the gold medal in the TEHRAN championship. After only a week, he was taken to Asfahan and he was able to win the Gold medal.

In 1990, his family decided to leave from IRAN and move to Syria in route to his new home in Canada in 1992.

He resumed his boxing in Canada in 1993 as he joined the McGrorey's Boxing club in Hamilton, Ontario and withing one year he won the 1994 Ontario Boxing Championship and then the Canadian National Championship by beating Claude Lambert by a score of 9-4 at the nationals. Due to his Canadian Citizenship status he could not compete in the PANAM games and represent Canada.
 

In 1995, Zaya received his Canadian Citizenship and in the same year he won the bronz medal in the 54 kg wright class at the International Boxing Tournament held in Tampere, Finland.

In 1996, he won the Canadian national championship for the 3rd time, in the 54kg weight class and made the Canadian Olympic boxing team. He retired from boxing in 2000 after winning the silver medal in his weight class and after years of representing himself and Canada in many championships including:

Even though he retired from competition, he did not retire from the game as he is working as a trainer at a local club here in Hamilton, Ontario Canada, helping some new and ambitious young new comers into the ring.