23 - 29 August 2001
Issue No.548
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 23 - 29 August 2001 Issue No.548 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Half-time
A world of difference
The minister of youth received a letter of thanks this week from the Egyptian Embassy in Canada in appreciation of the performance, results and sportsmanship of the Egyptian athletes who took part in the Francophone Games in Canada last month.
The Egyptians, who took fifth place in the tournament, weren't expected to get that far but they did, clinching a hefty portion of gold, silver and bronze medals as well as winning the admiration of Canadian and Egyptian spectators, not to mention the fans back here who followed their progress on TV.
But let's face it, the Francophone Games is a facile tournament, child's play when compared to an Olympics or World Cup. Usually most nations don't participate with full strength teams and that was obvious in this particular meet. Nations entering the Francophone championship sent depleted teams in order to save their best for last month's World Swimming Championship and the World Athletics Championship which ended last week.
As a result, we shouldn't blow our achievements in Canada all out of proportion. This is in no way belittling the efforts of the winning athletes or the federations or the tournament itself. The Francophone Games is an officially sanctioned championship which Egypt did exceptionally well in. Indeed, the Games should serve as an incentive to do better when we get to much tougher and meaner competitions. We would, in fact, like nothing better than for the Youth Ministry to keep its promise and reward the players who brought home medals from Canada so that we might possibly see an encore performance in future, when it counts more.
We are close to a serious competition, the Mediterranean Games, starting in Tunisia next month. This is a tournament viewed by many nations with more earnest than the Francophone Games and as such, it is much more difficult to do well in.
Egypt's Mohamed Taher Pasha founded the Mediterranean Games and they were hosted first in Alexandria. We were thus its pioneers and took top honours early on. But the Games have in the past few years become exceedingly competitive, perhaps not equal to an Olympics but a far different proposition than the Francophone Games. Egypt has slipped badly from one Games to the other. And after swimming sensation Rania Elwani retired last year, the Games are expected to be for Egypt a totally different kettle of fish from what they used to be.
We want our squad to forget the 'honourable representation' slogan it espouses when going to world class meets. We want real achievements in a real championship. Only then can we know where we stand in the world of sports and understand our true capabilities.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page