Farida Osman and Marawan Al-Kamash collected gold medals at the recent US Open Swimming Championship. After eight months without a major swimming competition due to the coronavirus, the United States hosted the Open in nine cities around the country. In one of those cities, Indianapolis, Indiana, Egyptian Olympic swimmer Marawan Al-Kamash won the 800m freestyle. With the achievement, Al-Kamash qualified for the 2022 Tokyo Olympics. The 800m freestyle men and women events saw the Egyptian swimmer record the best time among all competitors. Al-Kamash recorded a personal best of 7:52.19 to secure the victory, 10 seconds ahead of his closest rival. Al-Kamash, a Rio 2016 Olympian who won two African games gold medals last year, was one of only two men to clear the eight-minute mark. Meantime, in the same tournament, Egyptian swimmer Farida Othman won the gold medal in the 50-metre freestyle at a time of 10.25, a historic achievement for Egyptian swimming despite the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the world and affecting all sports. Egypt's Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi congratulated Othman and Al-Kamash after they won their gold medals and praised the Egyptian Swimming Federation for its efforts made in the manner of training, the players' preparations for international tournaments and their impressive results in various competitions. *A version of this article appears in print in the 19 November, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
