Egypt dominated the Arab archery championship in Cairo even though the sport is not that popular. Ghada Abd El-Kader explains the paradox Egypt won the three-day Arab archery championship in Wadi Degla sporting club in Maadi. Heba El-Ashqar and Nancy El-Gebali claimed the gold medal for Egypt in the women's event with 187 points. Aliya Dahham, Farah Gaafar and Ghazwah Mohamed scored 154 points to give Iraq second place and the silver medal. Egypt also dominated the individual event with Fadia Ibrahim scoring 92 points to win the gold medal. Nancy El-Gabali captured the silver medal with 87 points while Mai Mansour took the bronze with 86 points. In the men's event, Egyptians Wa'el Foda, Maged Abdel-Azim and Amr Ghanem scored 195 points to win gold medals. Qatar's Ali Salem, Ashraf Rostom and Ahmed El-Abadi collected 189 points to take silver while the bronze went to Iraq with 178 points. The Iraqis comprised Ali Adnan, Amer Meteb and Ali Salman. Qatar dominated the individual event winning the gold and bronze. Ali Salem claimed the gold scoring 108 points while countryman Ahmed El-Abadi won the bronze with 100 points. Silver went to Egyptian Maged Abdel-Azim who had 96 points. In this, the fifth edition of the championship, junior Egyptian archers Mahmoud Sharaf, Marwan Hamdi and Amir El-Banani took the first three positions. Sharaf scored 233 points to claim the gold medal. With three points less, Marwan hauled in the silver while El-Banani garnered 288 points for the bronze. In the compounds bows competition, Egyptian archers Ahmed Helal and Ayman Ksibh won the gold and bronze medals. Helal scored 639 points while Ksibh claimed 578 points. The silver went to Saudi Arabia's Abdel-Aziz El-Rodhan who finished with 635 points. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and Egypt took part in the event organised by the Egyptian Archery Federation in cooperation with the National Sports Council and under the supervision of the Arab Archery Federation. Despite the championship being held in Egypt, Mohamed Khairat, archery coach in Wadi Degla, conceded the sport was not very popular in the country because it lacked media coverage and was not being financed enough. Khairat is a former champion who has taken part in several Arab, African and European championships. He was in the 2003 European Archery Championship in France before retiring to become a coach. Khairat described archery as one of the very expensive sports and was monopolised by the elite class. The bow alone costs LE8,000. "The bow stays the same but the arrows need to be changed every month because of over use. The 12 arrows cost LE3,000. Financial support from the National Sports Council comes to only LE200,000 to buy equipment, organise championships and hold international training camps," Khairat said. "This is not enough." Archery does not need any special skills; just practice and training. It is very simple and is suitable for men and women. The men's bow is larger so the speed of the arrow is faster. Concentration, a challenge, calmness, patience and mainly self- satisfaction are the benefits. Sarah Hossameddin, nine, said she took on the sport at an early age after her mother's uncle, a former archer, encouraged her. It also seems that younger sister Mariam, seven, is on the road to becoming a promising archer herself. Sports director at Wadi Degla Khalid Salah is a former basketball junior player who achieved international recognition in the sport before he switched to archery. "I liked it. It's an interesting sport." Unlike Khairat, Salah, 32, does not find the sport expensive. "It isn't expensive. Any game needs outfits, training, fitness, psychology, mental and technical courses and equipment," said Salah, who is taking part in the Arab Games as well. Nineteen-year-old Amir Mustafa describes archery as unique. "I find it enjoyable. Despite being an Olympic sport it is not very popular in Egypt. The number of those who practice it are very few." Mustafa, winner of the gold medal in the Arab championship, attributes his success to his father whom he said has supported him throughout. Omar Shalabi, 17, of AUC, started practicing archery a couple of years ago. "Before, I used to play trapshooting, then I tried archery. I enjoyed it very much. It needs a lot of training and patience but I became addicted. It makes the player control himself and his body. There is no violence in it," Shalabi said. The first and second Arab archery championships were held in Lebanon in 1999 and 2001. The third was in 2003 and the fourth in Libya in 2005. There were several attempts to establish an Egyptian archery federation but it was not until 1997 when the government issued a resolution creating a federation. Following its establishment, the federation launched a series of activities, beginning with an international training course in November 1998. In March 1999, the federation was dissolved and another board was appointed in April that year. FATA (Fédération Arabe de Tir à l'Arc -- Arab Archery Federation) was founded on 29 May 1998 with Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya as the founding members. Egypt and Qatar joined later. The Arab Archery Federation aims at strengthening relations between Arab youth through the setting up of Arab and international tournaments. Ancient archery was played throughout the world, even in Australia where it had previously been thought the bow had not been used. Although archery probably dates back to the Stone Age (around 20,000 BC), the earliest people known to have used the bow and arrow were the ancient Egyptians who adopted it at least 5,000 years ago for purposes of hunting and warfare. Egypt is preparing to take part in the 11th Arab Games scheduled to be held in Cairo in October.
