The Pan-Arab Games ended on Friday but nobody knows who won. Mohamed El-Sayed reports on a result all too normal when Arabs are involved Strange but true. The Pan-Arab Games held in Algeria came to an end on Friday without a winner being declared. Egypt supposedly topped the medal list with 81 gold, 41 silver and 48 bronze for 170 medals. However, the organising committee decided instead to add the medals of the handicapped competitions, which were held on the sidelines of the Games, to the list of Algerian medals. As a result, Algeria came in first ahead of Egypt with 91 gold medals. Without the medals from the handicapped athletes, Algeria would have finished second with 74 gold, 77 silver and 78 bronze for 229 medals. (The number of gold counts for more than overall tally). For the record, Tunisia finished third with 48 gold, 42 silver and 52 bronze for 142 medals. Before the championship began it was agreed in writing that the medals from handicapped athletes would not be added to those of the able-bodied, meaning Algeria proclaiming itself the winner is blatantly incorrect. But is anybody listening? Following a protest from the Egyptian delegation before the closing ceremony, the organising committee compromised -- in its own way. It displayed three tables on the 5 July Stadium screen during the closing ceremony. The first showed Egypt the winner of the Games with 81 golds. The second showed the standings of the competition for the handicapped, and the third put Algeria on top of the Pan-Arab Games with 91 gold, ahead of Egypt which was given 73 golds. The media committee of the Games said the tables would be sent to the Arab Games Federation and the Sports Ministers Council, both affiliated to the Arab League, to decide the winning country. However, the fear is that the conundrum will still unresolved since it is expected that the Pan-Arab organisation will be unable or unwilling to take a decision. "Article 17 of the regulations governing the Pan-Arab Games says the medals of the handicapped may not be added to those earned by the able-bodied," said Mohamed Kabish, head of the Egyptian delegation, adding that this was a first in the history of the Games. The headlines of Algerian newspapers were also conflicting as to who was the winning country. "The Arab Games were concluded with Algeria on top of the table, thanks to track and field and judo", went the headline of Al-Akhbar. Meanwhile, the headline of Al-Sabah Al-Gadid said: "Egypt topped the Pan-Arab Games despite the bright comeback of the Algerians". Egypt has won seven out of the previous nine Arab championships, so coming in second would be a surprise. Still, such controversies are typical of Third World sports events. In the Pan-African Games held last year in Nigeria, Egypt again was a victim after the hosts, again against Olympic regulations, insisted on playing competitions that involved only two countries -- Nigeria being one of them -- thus earning for itself the biggest number of medals, many of them obviously dubious. The controversy in Algeria aside, four players were in the spotlight for much of the two-week event. Swimmer Osama Al-Melouli of Tunisia earned himself a distinguished place in the chronicles of this championship, claiming six gold medals, four silvers, and one bronze. Salma Zenhom of Egypt clinched six golds and two silvers. The 18-year-old swimmer is expected to follow the footsteps of her great predecessor Ranya Elwani, who won 20 medals in the last two Games in Beirut 1997 and Amman 1999. Honorable mention also went to Baya Rahouli of Algeria with four gold medals. She could have won a fifth if not for a mistake she committed in the 4x100 race that denied her team the gold. Countryman Selim Ilas, the bronze medalist of the 2002 world championship in Moscow, won four gold in swimming. The Games could have been declared void of performance-enhancing drugs case had it not been for Yemeni taekwondu player Adli Mohamed Ghanem who tested positive. Ghanem, who won the gold in the 54kg category, was not officially stripped of his medal pending the result of an appeal he submitted to the organising committee. Commenting on the level of the competition, Hasiba Bulmarqa, the Algerian gold medalist in the 1,500 metres Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, wasn't impressed. "The competitions were quite dead because of the significant absence of big names in Arab sports as well as the lack of promotion," Bulmarqa was quoted as saying. "The Games are no longer attractive for them, a matter that has led to a drop in the level of the competition." Lacking in financial credit, Bulmarqa says, will force this major Arab event "to cease to exist. We saw the cancellation of many competitions because they did not have the minimum number of competitors." Stressing that the participation of elite players and teams will help attract more sponsorship and more attention from news agencies and satellite channels, she added, "Elite sportsmen, not sports officials, make the Games valuable." The Algerian said sports in most Arab countries "are run by inefficient, inexperienced people who know nothing about the techniques and rules of sports. They, however, impress their audience with their rhetoric and here lies the real problem." Libya will host the next edition of the Games in 2007 if it is not postponed as has been the norm throughout the history of the event.
