Osama bin Laden stood out not just because of his height but because of his serious, conservative demeanour, according to a Taiwan man who says the al Qaeda leader, killed by US troops on Monday, was a student in his judo classes in Saudi Arabia.
Jimmy Wu, a top Taiwan judo coach, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a tournament in the central city of Taichung that he came across bin Laden when coaching the Saudi Arabian national judo team from 1981 to 1991. Bin Laden, whom Wu then knew only as "Osama", attended classes at the judo centre while still a university student. He was too tall for judo, and Wu said he advised him against the sport, but he was insistent so Wu accepted him.
Wu showed Reuters photographs of himself and a tall, thin, bearded, serious young man with a mop of black hair whom he said was Osama. Osama attended lessons two to three times a week but Wu never saw him again after 1984. Reuters has no way of verifying that the man in the pictures was bin Laden. Bin Laden was shot dead by US forces in Pakistan on Monday.
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