A week of achievements

Abeer Anwar reports on a week of achievements

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Olympic champion Karam Gaber entertained the spectators at the African Wrestling Championship in South Africa

In the African Wrestling Championship in South Africa, Egypt took six gold medals out of seven in the Greco-Roman events to come in first place, overpowering several countries with a history in the sport, including Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

In the 55kg weight category, Karim Ibrahim collected the gold. The 66kg gold went to Ashraf El-Gharabelli and Ahmed El-Sadek took first in the 84kg. El-Sadek was replacing Mohamed Abdel-Fatah, otherwise known as Boogi, who is currently in the United States preparing for the World Championship in China in September.

Another golden champion was Yasser Abdel-Rahman in the 120kg. Mustafa Abul Ela and Athens Olympic Champion Karam Gaber added two gold medals in the 60kg and 96kg.

Rafi Martin, the head of the International Wrestling Federation, congratulated Gaber for his Athens achievement and selected him to hoist the federation’s flag during the closing ceremony of the championship.

“African wrestling has become very famous due to the golden achievement of Gaber in the 2004 Athens Olympics,” Martin said. “This medal has become an honour bestowed not only on the player but on the African continent as a whole.”

“I am very proud of such an honour and such words and I promise to do my best and try to repeat this achievement for the sake of both my country Egypt and my African continent,” Gaber said.

Hassan Medani and Walid Nabil won two gold medals in the 60kg and 74kg.

Ibrahim Ahmed Gabr added a silver medal in the 74kg.

In the women’s event, Doaa Maher snared the gold medal in the 63kg while teammate Samia Selim came in third with the bronze.

“It is a great achievement for Egypt to collect such a number of gold medals,” Mahmoud Fattahalla, Egypt’s coach, said. “It’s proof that Egyptian wrestling is still tops in Africa.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed Heikel took gold in a Turkish boxing championship in the 75kg weight category overcoming Ukraine’s Alexander Esterbaki in the final 26-11. “I am very happy with the medal. I trained a lot and such championships are very important in our journey towards the Olympics and the World championships,” Heikel said.

In yet another achievement, Egypt’s paralympians collected 12 medals at the World Powerlifting Championship in South Korea last week — five gold, five silver and two bronze

Fatma Omar won the award for best world powerlifter for past achievements. Compatriot Metwalli Mathana, who won the gold medal, was selected world best No 2.

“It is an honour for all of us in Egypt as such achievements are great,” Nabil Salem, head of the Paralympics Committee, said. “It also gives us a big push in our bid to host the 2010 World Powerlifting Championship.”

Egypt is vying with France and Malaysia for the job as hosts.