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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Banging the gongs
By Inas MazharThe final of the football competition between Iraq and hosts Jordan was the final event of the last Pan-Arab Games of the millennium. Jordan beat Iraq 7-5 on penalty kicks to clinch the football gold medal in a thrilling match that was attended by King Abdullah II and other members of the royal family. After medals were awarded, a simple closing ceremony was staged on Tuesday night at the Amman Stadium, in which the Games' flag was handed to the next host, Algeria, organisers of the 10th round in the year 2001.
In the closing ceremony, just as throughout the 20-day tournament, the Jordanian royal family was conspicuously present. King Abdullah II, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the number 99, led family members in their tours of the Game's many venues, and was a conspicuous member of the crowds that gathered to watch all of Jordan's football matches.
The king was also present at the final of the basketball competition, when Egypt beat their hosts. Smiling broadly, King Abdullah, a former president of the Jordanian Football Federation, handed the Egyptian team their gold medal. He also took time out to visit members of the Egyptian squash team who had suffered injuries in a car accident.
Queen Rania, who before the opening of the Games met with all the female competitors and wished them luck, also visited the squash team in hospital.
Top: King Abdullah and Queen Rania cheer the Jordanian football team while Rania Elwani (above) displays a record ten gold medals (photos: Reuters)
Queen Nour put her grief over her late husband, King Hussein, aside to share in the Arab festival, and awarded the Egyptian women's gymnastics team their gold medal. Princess Haya, meanwhile, took part in the Games as a member of the Jordanian equestrian team. Although she did not win a medal she won the admiration of participants. She also visited the victims of riots that broke out at the Libya-Palestine and Libya-Iraq football matches in hospital.
In addition to the violence of the Libyan fans and the car accident involving Egyptian squash players, the Games were also marred by the death of Lebanon's 52-year-old shooting referee Antoine Wazen and the demise of Saudi Arabia's 54-year-old Prince Faisal bin Fahd, president of the Arab Sports Federation.
Even before the Games drew to a close, Egypt had confirmed its sporting supremacy in the Arab world. In an unprecedented achievement Egyptian athletes collected an overall total of 267 medals: 106 gold, 80 silver, and 81 bronze.
Next week Egypt will take part in the All-Africa Games in Johannesburg. Its athletes will have to make a much greater effort in order to compete with the giants of South Africa, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Although Egyptian successes at the Arab Games appear impressive, the levels of teams and players seem to be deteriorating -- a development that could lead to an embarrassing failure at the Africa Games. Despite all the gold that was harvested, most players, including swimmer Rania Elwani, with 10 gold medals, did not break their own or Arab records. This raises question marks about the anticipated Egyptian performance in Johannesburg.
According to Maj. Gen. Mounir Thabet, president of the National Olympic Committee, individual players and teams considered the Arab tournament as a final training and preparation for a much more important event, the All-Africa Games. "They had to save their strength for Johannesburg," he said. "This is what mattered most. Still, we won the Arab Games without much effort and collected more medals than we had promised. In some events, we faced no competition at all."
For her part, Rania Elwani said that failing to break her own or Arab records did not mean she had not fulfilled her promise. "There was no need for me to put pressure on myself during the Games," she explained. "I faced no competition at all. I knew I was winning; so I needn't lose my strength, but save it for the Africa Games. In Johannesburg, unlike Amman, I will participate in three races only and I'm sure that I'll face strong competition from my main rivals, the South Africans."
