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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Sailboard success
By Abeer Anwar
The closing ceremony of the 2000 Al-Ahram International Penta Mistral World Cup in Safaga was a fitting conclusion to a successful event. Accompanied by Red Sea Governor Sa'ad Abu-Reeda, Essam Abdel-Moneim, head of Al-Ahram's sports department, gave out the $52,000 prize money.
"We welcome such events at any time as they help tourism flourish in Egypt. We are willing to provide all the necessary help and subsidies to such events," Abu-Reeda said.
Abdel-Moneim said, "Al-Ahram, as a big organisation, would like to sponsor more events in different sports to help improve Egyptian players' standards."
Although 10 races were supposed to be held for both men and women, wind changes cut the number to nine for men and eight for women. But, as Rory Ramsden, the head of the Mistral section at the International Sailing Federation, said, "The wind is a fickle mistress; it does what it wants, not what we want. This has always been the case in international races. We have to make decisions minute by minute on the water. The racing competiton is very hard. We had the maxium number of races that we could."
Red Sea naval base personnel did a great job at the competition providing rescue back-up and security assistance. Their efforts were far from symbolic on the second day when the wind speeds reached 25 knots and five windsurfers were in danger of drowning after being hit by their boards.
On the last day of the competition, the wind for all four races was gusty and the constant changes in its direction made it a challenge for all. Wind speed varied between seven and 12 knots, affecting the players' performance and resulting in a change of rank for the second-and third-place winners. The winner, however, Portugal's Joah Rodrigues, although affected greatly by the wind, was able to establish an unbeaten lead, keeping the first place with 19 points.
Despite ranking second on the fourth day of the competition, Ukrainian Maxim Oberemko had slipped a place by the following day to rank third with 34 points, leaving the second place to gutsy Briton Nick Dempsey with 33 points.
photo: Mohamed Wassim
And there were no surprises in the women's event, with Italy's Alessandra Senseni, bronze medalist in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, securing first place with seven points. Poland's Anna Galecka, ranked sixth in the world, came second with 18 points and Germany's Romy Kinzi took third with 30.
Egyptian hopes were hanging on national champion Mohamed Hafez, who gained international experience in last year's world championship in Holland where he was ranked 57th among 107 competitors. In Safaga, he finished in 27th place while his younger brother and teammate, Sherif Hafez, came 23rd.
Windsurfing in Egypt took off in 1994 when the Egyptian Windsurfing Federation formed the National Centre for Sailing. Abdel-Qader Salem, the head of the centre, formed the national team from the talented players he saw.
"The Egyptians started windsurfing only four years ago so their ranking in this event is excellent as they are playing against professional windsurfers while they are only amateurs," Salem said. He added that the players of the national team train only four times per week and that they were gathered two weeks before the event as they were all busy with exams.
Commenting on the superiority of the Israeli players, he explained, "This sport started 18 years ago in Israel so they are more professional and they have had contact with world champions through a number of international events."
Salem feels that Egyptian windsurfers lack the sponsorship which could allow them contact with other international teams through outdoor camps and events.
Commenting on the event itself, Sherif El-Asfouri, manager of the Safaga competition, commented, "We started very small, but we are very committed to organise larger and larger events year after year. Our goal is to host the ISAF [International Sailing Federation] Championship of Olympic classes in 2003."
And, following the success of Safaga, El-Asfouri has decided to bid for the World Championship in 2001. "We have all the facilities: the water, the sun, the weather; but we lack the sponsors. All we are looking for is LE800,000, which is nothing if compared to the amount of money spent on organsing the World Handball Cup last year."
