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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The African drop
Egypt took an unaccustomed back seat in the Seventh All-Africa Games after finishing in third place behind hosts South Africa and second place Nigeria.Egypt's total medal haul of 156 medals -- 52 gold, 60 silver and 44 bronze -- put the country in third, 18 medals behind South Africa which clinched first place. Nigeria's 128 medals made it good enough for second. It was Egypt's poorest showing in the Games, having finished first several times mainly because of South Africa's ostracisation from the tournament for its apartheid policies. South Africa's debut in the 1995 Games in Zimbabwe nudged Egypt off its perch by a single gold medal. This year's Games, however, saw Egypt's one-time dominance on the continent further eroded by the up-and-coming Nigerians.
Egypt's fall from grace can also be attributed to some new rules. The country lost around a dozen guaranteed gold medals in taekwondu after entering only four players instead of 12, a decision made by the Games' organising committee in a bid to reduce the number of players any one country could enter in the sport. The decision meant the taekwondu team ended up with just four gold medals. In other martial arts, nine gold, four silver and one bronze went to the karate team while judo players amassed four gold, three silver and one bronze medal.
Our wrestling team compensated somewhat, bagging the most medals of any Egyptian team -- 13 gold medals, nine silver and 10 bronze.
Basketball was the only Egyptian team sport to win a gold medal. The handball team took the silver, volleyball men the bronze and women's volleyball the silver. In field hockey, the national team reached the final, only to be shut out by South Africa 4-0.
The swimmers, who made a big splash in last month's Pan-Arab Games in Jordan, were a big flop in Johannesburg. Rania Elwani, having collected 10 gold medals in Amman, could muster nothing more than one lowly gold and two bronze medals against African competition. All told, the team posted a miserly one gold medal, two silver and three bronze in the pool.
Disabled swimmers did much better, landing three gold medals by Essam Zeidan and Mohamed El-Nadi. Maged Anwar and Emadeddin Adel won the silver in the 50m and 100m freestyle. Two bronze medals were won by Emad Adel and Mohamed El-Nadi. In track and field, the disabled took 11 medals. In boxing, Egypt snared three gold, four silver and five bronze medals. In athletics, one gold, four silver and four bronze were picked up. Table tennis players collected one gold, three silver and three bronze. Gymnastics garnered seven gold medals, nine silver and six bronze.
In marked contrast to recent drug scandals on the international scene, not a single athlete was tested positive in the Games.
