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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Prejudice on the mats?
Football, basketball, volleyball. Such are the sports that make the headlines in Egypt even though its standard in all of them leaves much to be desired, at least internationally speaking. A sport like Tae Kwon-Do rarely gets even half the prominence given to other sports even though Egypt is one of the best at it. It's a paradox that has been around for years. The situation might soon reverse itself, however, after Egypt's Tae Kwon-Do team finished sixth in the World Cup recently held in France. Not only could the martial arts sport finally carve a niche for itself on the sports pages but the high world ranking that Egypt now enjoys could translate into Olympic glory this summer.
Although the Egyptian Tae Kwon-Do Federation expressed overwhelming joy over the results, officials claimed they would have done even better had there been fair refereeing in the encounters. "We were subject to untold injustice in the championship," Nasser Shehata, the federation's vice president, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Shehata cited the case of France and Cuba who, while having a modest history in the game, finished second and third while mighty South Korea ended up in fourth. Shehata failed to add that France and Cuba might simply have done well in the championship and deserved to finish as high as they did. But Shehata claimed that the explanation involved scoring political brownie points. He charged the president of the International Tae Kwon-Do Federation, who is running for president of the International Olympic Committee, with currying with favour some countries in a bid to garner more votes. France and Cuba do have several votes in the committee as opposed to Egypt's single vote, in the person of Mounir Thabit.
Be that as it may, Egypt can still look back at a fine display in France and see a bright future ahead. "I am confident that we are on the right track to win an Olympic medal," Shehata said.
The optimism was shared by Farag El-Emari, the team's technical manager. "I think it was a remarkable achievement taking into consideration the circumstances we went through," El-Emari said. Again, El-Emari had strong words for the referees and the organisers, expressing disbelief over how the Koreans managed to escape being severely penalised after hitting the referee who they claim made objectionable decisions.
"There was flagrant prejudice against the Egyptians," El-Emari said, citing Tamer Abdel-Moneim and Yehia Allam, former World Cup medalists, as victims of biased refereeing after they were knocked out by two mediocre Frenchmen. In France, Talaat Mabrouk snatched a silver while three bronze medals went to Allam, Tamer Salah and Adel Hussein. Iran emerged the World Cup winner.
"I feel I was robbed of the gold medal," Allam, a heavyweight, told the Weekly. "What happened at the championship was anything but sports and sportsmanship," Allam said. "Even the French player could not believe it when he defeated me in the semi-final. His teammates were laughing out of embarrassment." Allam was not the only Egyptian player deprived of a medal because of alleged preferential treatment. Mabrouk lost in the 58 kilogramme category against an American. The chief judge, El-Emari said, was -- surprise, surprise -- an American "who did not hesitate for a second to declare the American player the winner despite Mabrouk's dominance throughout the match," El-Emari said.
Despite Egypt's complaints about the referees, its performance overall in France was an improvement over its previous World Cup medal collection of just two medals. Their bigger haul in France was even more impressive because unlike the world championship, in which dozens of countries are allowed to participate, the top 30 countries entered the World Cup in France, making the tournament much tougher.
