Egypt's wrestlers dominated the mat at the African Championships held recently in Algeria, adding more athletes to the Rio 2016 Olympics. At last count, 102 Egyptian athletes are headed for the Rio Games. In Greco-Roman wrestling, 10 male and female wrestlers made it to the podium of the African Championships, claiming the gold medal which automatically earned them a place in next summer's Olympic Games. The list of honours included Adham Salah in 66kg, Samar Amer in 75kg, Inas Khorshid in 69kg, Haiytham Mahmoud in 59kg, Mahmoud Fawzi in 75kg, Ahmed Saad in 85kg, and Mohamed Zaghloul, Ali Hamdi (98kg), Diaa Kamal and Abdel-Latif Mohamed in the 130kg. Mahmoud's win in 59kg gave Morocco a second berth in Rio 2016, as Mehdi Messaoudi (MAR) followed the winner in second place. Algeria's Africa champion Adem Boudjemline grabbed a ticket for the home team at 85kg, despite a pair of technical falls. He stumbled 4-3 against 98kg Egypt's Africa champ Ahmed Saad in the final. Egypt headed for Rio with semi-final victories in the three heaviest freestyle categories — Mohamed Ali Zaghloul (86kg), Ali Hamdi Mustafa (97kg) and Diaaeldin Abdel-Motaleb in the (125kg). In the canoe and kayak, Mennatalla Hassan, Karim Emad and Ahmed Ali qualified to the Olympic Games after winning in the African competition held in South Africa. Hassan placed third in the 200 metres behind South Africa's two champions who came in first and second. Emad and Ali also qualified to the Olympics men's 200 metres event. Minister of Youth and Sports Khaled Abdel-Aziz congratulated the winners of the wrestling and canoe and kayak federations on his Facebook page. “Congratulations to all winners and qualifiers, athletes and all their technical, administration and medical staff of the two federations. We are really proud of their performances and how they made it to the Olympic Games”. Abdel-Aziz said that all athletes who had managed to qualify for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next summer will all travel to the Games as part of the Egyptian delegation. The minister's announcement was a reply to rumours that not all qualifiers will represent Egypt in the Games, especially if their records do not guarantee a medal or a top position. He said that if athletes qualified to the Games according to IOC rules, then it was their right to participate.
