Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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The Midas touch

By Abeer Anwar

The last Pan-Arab Games of the millennium may also be the last time any country does as well as Egypt -- including Egypt. The country collected 264 medals, smashing the old mark of 187 it set in the 1997 Games in Lebanon. The haul in Jordan, which included 106 gold, 79 silver and 79 bronze medals, was an astonishing 127 medals more than second-place Tunisia, which collected 40 gold medals. To put the feat in perspective, Bahrain, Palestine, Libya and Sudan did not win a single gold; Mauritania and Djibouti did not win any medals at all. Never before had the 46-year-history of the Games seen such a flood of medals go to a single country and most observers believe it is a feat which may never be duplicated. Below is a review of the final week of events which Egypt crowned with a bevy of trophies.

Taekwondo
In the 84kg weight division, Egypt's Yehia Allam won a bronze and Talaat Ebada captured the gold in 58kg while teammate Adel Hussein claimed another gold in the 62kg. Ahmed Adel added a third gold in 78kg and teammate Mohamed Shaaban clinched the fourth gold in the 84kg after beating Tunisia's Mohamed Sharef. In the women's event, Shaimaa Afifi won the gold medal in 55kg while Fatma Mubarak came second in the 67kg after losing to Jordan's Fatma El-Sayed. Heba Sobhi came second in the 52kg as did teammate Inas Ghaneim in 47kg. In the 78kg and 72kg categories, Egypt's Sabreen Abdel-Hamid and Yasmine Gamal won two bronze medals.

Egypt's athletes could do almost no wrong as they continued to reap more medals in wrestling during the Pan-Arab Games in Jordan (photos: AP and AFP)

Judo
Inas El-Banna beat Syria's Manal Badr to collect the gold medal in the 52kg category. In 48kg, Mona Abdel-Hamid won the silver.

Shooting
In the pistol event, Egypt secured gold and silver medals thanks to Tarek Zaki and Sherif Salaheddin. In the team competition of the same event, Egypt collected the silver medal. In the 10m air pistol event, Ragai Abdullah came first with 179 points and Mohamed Ismail second with 177.8 points. In the team event, Egypt added another gold medal after collecting 1,735 points. In the 25m pistol event, Egypt swept the first three places.

Squash
Egypt's men and women won the event's two gold medals, defeating Jordan in both finals.

Tennis
Karam Mamoun beat Moroccan Talal Dahabi 2-1 to win the gold medal while Egypt came second in the men's doubles after losing to Tunisia 2-1. In the women's doubles, Egypt's pair lost to Algeria 3-1 and finished second.

Windsurfing
Mohamed El-Shatori collected the gold in the laser event while Sayed Orabi came second in the metral.

Volleyball
The women beat Tunisia 3-0 to win the gold, making up somewhat for the men who lost to Tunisia, even though they were up 2-0 in sets.

Table Tennis
The women came first after beating Algeria 3-0 in the finals of the teams event. The men followed suit, beating Jordan by the same score. In the singles, Bassant Othman and Shaimaa Abdel-Aziz collected gold and silver. Both players paired up to win the gold doubles as well. Sayed Lasheen won the gold medal and Ashraf Helmi the bronze in the men's singles. The Egyptian double of Ashraf Helmi and Ahmed Saleh slammed their way to the gold.

Fencing
Tamer Tahoon finished first in the foil after beating Jordan's Amer Al-Natour while teammate Tarek El-Masri collected the bronze. In the team competition, Egypt struck gold. In the epee, Yasser Mahmoud came third while in the women's team event Egypt again took gold while the men lost to Saudi Arabia to come second.

Karate
In the team kata event, Egypt's women's and men's teams collected two gold medals in the singles. In the women's kumite event, Doaa Abdel-Fattah won the gold in the 55kg category while teammates Hanaa Ramadan and Maha Qenawi came third in the 65 and over 65kg weights. In 50kg, Heba El-Sayed came first while the women's kumite team collected the bronze. Badr Mohamed and Essam Badr collected two bronze in the 55 and 60kg weight categories. Hussein El-Dosouki collected two gold medals in the 70kg and open weight competitions. Ashraf Hanoud took home the bronze in 65kg.

Wrestling
In the Graeco-Roman events, Abdu El-Barbary, Mohamed Ibrahim and Mohamed El-Sayed pinned down three gold medals in the 69kg, 85kg and 130kg weight divisions. Three silver medals were added by Ashraf Gharieb, Saber Mahmoud and Ahmed Fouad in the 58kg, 63kg and 76kg categories. In 54kg, Mohamed Abul-Alaa came third. Hassan Ibrahim and Hesham Abdu took the gold in the 54kg and 130kg weight categories. Three silver medals were collected by Ahmed Essmat, Shabaan El-Sayed and Ibrahim Ahmed in weights 63, 76 and 58kg. Belal Abul-Einain snatched the bronze in 85kg.

Deep-sea Diving
In water flippers, Egypt's Alaa Abdel-Moneim collected the gold and silver medals in the 50m above and underwater events. In 200m underwater, Dina Saad added a second gold while the third went to Wessam Ismail in the 100m. The women's team won the gold in the 4x50m relay. Hesham Rushdi finished second in the 200m race. In 50m, Momen and Mustafa El-Khayat received two bronze medals. A third bronze went to Hesham Rashidi.

Handball
The men beat Morocco 26-20 to capture the gold while the women ended up with a bronze.

Boxing
Ahmed Ismail and Ramadan Abdel-Ghafar collected a gold medal each in the 81 and 75kg weight categories. Six silver medals were awarded to Mohamed Abdel-Rahim, Mahmoud Mahmoud, Eid Fikry, Saleh Abdel-Bari, Fadel Shabaan and Amr Mustafa in the 48, 51, 54, 60, 67 and 91kg divisions. Ibrahim Abdel-Aati and Mustafa El-Shamasi pocketed two bronze medals.

Bodybuilding
A silver medal was stripped from Egypt when the athlete in question was tested positive for a banned stimulant. All told, six players were tested positive at the Games.

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