A champion at the end
As the year closed, an Egyptian literally squashed the opposition at the World Open squash championship. Inas Mazhar reviews that conquest and the rest
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Clockwise from top: Shabana receives the trophy and a handshake from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; Ramadan in the World Championship in Vancouver; Ashraf Awwad about to fire in what was otherwise a disappointing handball year; Abdel-Fatah pinning his opponent; El-Ammawi, crowned world champion; Egypt upended South Africa for the field hockey gold in the All-Africa Games; Hamdi El-Safi against Tunisia in the final of the African Volleyball Championship
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Egypt's sports year ended triumphantly as Amr Shabana, the world's No 11, became the first Egyptian to win the World Open squash title when he completed a sequence of startling upsets in the final in Lahore on Sunday.
The 24-year-old won 15-14, 9-15, 15-11, 15-7 against Thierry Lincou, the fourth seeded Frenchman who 24 hours earlier had made certain of becoming world No 1 for the first time.
Shabana, who became the lowest ranked player to win the World Open, had previously beaten defending world champion David Palmer, the world No 5 Anthony Ricketts and the world No 7 Karim Darwish, also Egyptian.
"I've never played such fantastic squash before," the new champion said. "This is the perfect place to play magical squash," he added, referring to the long line of world champions who have come from Pakistan over the past 50 years.
"I never counted myself out," Shabana said of his march to the title. "I always gave myself a chance. I moved forward and gained more confidence round by round."
Shabana became the first Egyptian to win the event since its founding in 1976. Egypt's Ahmed Barada, who retired three years ago at the age of 26 at a career high world No 3, reached the final in 1999 before losing to Peter Nicol of England.
There was good squash news earlier. Three months ago, the women claimed both the singles and team world juniors title in Egypt. Omneya Abdel-Qawi, 19, became the first Egyptian to win the world juniors title.
In November, the men's team took fourth place at the World Team Championship in Austria. Egyptian squash monopolised all singles and team titles, men and women, at both the Arab Championships and the All-Africa Games.
Weightlifting gave the country a big lift, collecting 50 medals in five championships: 24 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze. In May, Nahla Ramadan claimed two gold medals in the 75kg weight category as well as setting two new world records at the Junior World Championship in Mexico. Egypt finished fourth in the women's event and third in the men's with Mohamed Ihsan winning the gold in the over 105kg weight category.
In the seniors event, Egypt claimed five gold medals, four silver and two bronze with Ramadan setting another world record. Ramadan also claimed two gold medals and broke two more records at the Grand Prix in Hungary in May. Teammate Mohamed Tantawi was 11th in the 77kg weight category.
Egyptian weightlifters picked up more medals, 35 -- 18 gold, 10 silver and seven bronze -- at the All-Africa Games in Nigeria than in any other sport.
At the World Championship in Canada in October Ramadan was the only one among the 13 weightlifters to win three silver medals.
Bodybuilders El-Shahat Mabrouk and Anwar El-Ammawi continued their amazing work, crowned world champions, each in his own weight category.
In Graeco-Roman wrestling, Karam Gaber and Mohamed Abdel-Fatah are headed for Athens after winning two silver medals at the worlds. But Gaber openly complained about the federation not giving him the attention he thought was due and flew to the US after receiving offers to turn pro and get an American citizenship. However, the federation and Gaber have since patched things up.
Disabled athletes consistently do well and this year collected a handsome 73 medals at the Special Olympic World Summer Games in Ireland.
Further success included a new junior world record in the discus set at the World Athletics Championship by Omar El-Ghazali.
In the fairly good news category, Egypt supposedly won the All-Africa Games. But who, in fact, did win: hosts Nigeria or Egypt? Nigeria pronounced itself the victor, topping the medals table with 85 gold, 90 silver and 56 bronze for 231 medals overall. Egypt, which had expected to finish third, ended up as runners-up with 218 medals -- 81 gold, 66 silver and 71 bronze while South Africa, winners of the previous two editions, dropped to third with 63 gold, 59 silver and 52 bronze for 174 medals. By the end of the day, Nigeria had raked in more gold medals than Egypt in volleyball and weightlifting after a medal stand ratification by the organisers and the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa. But Cairo countered that Lagos had tacked on gold medals by separating events that had initially been combined disciplines, and by competing in sports with just one other nation -- and sometimes by itself -- although at least five countries must participate in any one given sport.
The dispute, though, paled in comparison with something else that happened in Nigeria. Egyptians were shocked by the death of two of its chess players there from malaria. The deaths triggered heated debate in parliament, after which the prime minister drafted a resolution calling on all members of delegations travelling abroad, especially to Africa, to be vaccinated.
Twenty-four members of the 400-member Egyptian team that went to Nigeria were hospitalised after suffering from malaria but were later released.
During the year, Egypt hosted the African volleyball and basketball championships in Cairo and Alexandria. That did not help either team; both lost and in addition, failed to qualify for the Olympics.
In the World Volleyball Cup in Japan in November, Egypt lost 11 of its 12 games, beating only Brazil. The women, who were crowned African champions in Nigeria in August, lost every game and finished last.
Basketball disappointed its fans in Alexandria after the African championship was won by Angola which will represent the continent in the Olympic Games. However, the national team won the second King Abdullah of Jordan Basketball Championship with a 77-71 victory over Lebanon in the final.
Handball had its worst year since 1991. The team placed 15th at the World Championship in Portugal, dropping from a previous fourth place finish in France. The juniors were no better, finishing 10th in the World Championship in Brazil.
The football team made it to the African Nations Cup in Tunisia which starts next month but there the success stories end. The Olympic team is in danger of missing Athens and the under-20 team could get no farther than the second round of the World Youth Championship in the Emirates. At club level, Ahli, Zamalek and Baladiyet Mehalla all exited early from African championships. Ismaili lasted a little longer before succumbing to Eniymba of Nigeria in the final of the Champions League.
Ahli denied Zamalek a third Egypt Super Cup victory on the eve of the new Egyptian premier league season following a 3-1 penalty win.
Eight medals were won at the World Youth Modern Pentathlon Championship that ended recently in Mexico. In the women's event, Aya Medani won the overall individual title with a total of 4140 points, overpowering her Russian opponent Alexandra and Hungary came third. Egypt's Yasmine Khaled took seventh place while Hoda Ghoneim was placed 25th. In the team event, the women placed third with 11,412 points behind the Hungarians who finished first with 11,548. The Russians finished second with 11,420 points, only eight points ahead of the Egyptians.
The national men's team also clinched third place with 11,892 points behind the Russians who tallied 12,648 and the Poles with 12,152 points. The boys did not do as good a job. Omar El-Geziri came 11th, Ahmed Samir 17th and Mohamed Fakhri 26.
The skeet team took the silver medal at the Shooting Grand Prix that ended recently in Slovenia. Amr El-Gaiar clinched the bronze medal in the singles event. It marked the first international accomplishment for the skeet team since Olympic champion Mohamed Khorsheid took over as head coach.
Taekwondou won the Arab Championship held at the Police Sports Federation in Cairo. Morocco clinched the women's title. In the men's event, Egypt collected five gold medals to take first place, ahead of runners-up Jordan which won three gold medals and two bronze. Morocco was third with one gold, one silver and two bronze. In the women's event, Morocco claimed seven gold medals to win the title followed by Lebanon with one gold, three silver and three bronze. Egypt was third with five silver and two bronze medals.
Heba Zakhari clinched one of Egypt's gold medals at the Arab Athletics Championship in Jordan in September. Zakhari claimed gold with a javelin throw of 51.94 metres. Teammate Wafaa El-Boghdadi took the silver in the same event. Heba Abdou added another gold medal to Egypt's tally in the discus while Amira Khaled clinched bronze in the high jump. Hanaa Gad took another bronze in the 10km walk.
For the first time, the European Table Tennis Federation offered four under-12 Egyptians the opportunity to join a one-week European camp in the Czech Republic in September. The offer came as part of the federation's effort to nurture a new generation of players, and to break the Asian stranglehold of the game.
Sixteen-year-old Ahmed Adli stole the spotlight from the veterans, winning Egypt's Chess Grand Masters Championship. Adli, seeded 2,429 in the world, collected 7.5 points from six victories, some of which came over grand masters. The event ended with five players sharing the same number of points, 6.5, including Egypt's 14-year-old Bassim Samir, another promising talent.
Hussein Nafadi, the Egyptian Chess Federation's secretary-general, said the Ministry of Youth would give Adli LE103,OOO to help him and Samir become international grand masters, a title never claimed by any Arab player since its inception in 1894.
Karim Ma'moun won the singles title in the Arab Tennis Championship in Jordan in September. Ma'moun beat compatriot Mohamed Ma'moun 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
In the women's event, Yumna Farid finished second, losing to Tunisia's Salima Saqr. In doubles, Egypt's men and women came second.
Al-Ahram's keen interest in sport continued to grow as it organised international tournaments in squash and billiards, both in Hurghada, and five-a-side football, or futsal, at the Pyramids.
