Negative news
A DOPING scandal and an early football ouster made us red in the face. Inas Mazhar reports.Two Egyptian bodybuilders might be stripped of their medals after being tested positive. Tests from world Champion gold medalist Youssri El-Sayed (75kg) and silver medalist Ahmed Esmat Sadek (85kg) came back positive from the world championship held in the Czech Republic in October. When releasing the results of the medal winners three months ago, the website of the International Bodybuilding Federation said the results will be finalised only after test results are made public.
Though the medals will be withdrawn from the two Egyptians, Egypt will still be the overall winner since it had been declared the best national team with the highest score in all events considering the most number of gold, silver and bronze medals won. The Czech Republic was second with 65 points followed by Slovakia.
The Egyptian delegation consisting of eight bodybuilders, including two who won gold medals, El-Sayed and Ahmed Hammouda in +100kg. The silver medal was won by the reigning African champion Sadek while a bronze was won by the former world champion Anwar El-Ammawi in 65kg.
Adel Fahim, president of the Egyptian Bodybuilding Federation, said the Egyptian side will ask for another analysis of the B sample of the two athletes. "This is shocking news. We only knew the results from the website. We ran doping tests on all our athletes before the competition to make sure they were clean. We will ask that the B samples be tested, but if the results still return positive, the two athletes will be punished," Fahim said.
In football, Egypt's under-17 football team was eliminated from the African Youth Championship being held in the Congo. Egypt, the tournament's favourite, failed to make it past the first round after being thrashed 3-0 by Zambia. Failing to go through to the semi-final, the Egyptians lost the chance to advance to the FIFA Youth World Cup in Canada next August.
Egypt had made an impressive start at the tournament, beating Cameroon 1-0, then drawing with Nigeria 1-1 before the Zambian debacle.
The Egyptian Football Association immediately dissolved the entire team -- officials and players -- before the team's plane had landed in Cairo.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/830/sp2.htm