Cairo Sporting Club is marking its 75th year, making it one of the five oldest clubs in Egypt. Abeer Anwar looks into its event-filled history Jordan hosted the Junior Under-20s and Cadet World Fencing Championship 2011, held from 29 March to 7 April at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention centre at the Dead Sea. In all, 1,300 fencers from 93 countries took part in the championship. In the men's epée event, the UK's Philip Marsh won the gold medal, Egypt's Ayman Alaa Eldin took silver and Russia's Nikita Glazkov and Finland's Alexander Lahtinen took bronze. In the official ranking list for the season 2010/2011 epée event, Italian Marco Fichera came first with 169 points, Alaa Eldin came second with 157 and Nikita Glazkov finished third with 135 points. Aged 20, Alaa Eldin is a fourth-year student at Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science. He is member of the Egyptian National Epée team, and has been practising fencing for nine years. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, he said: "It is so difficult to reconcile my studies and my training. At high school, I did not attend my classes. I studied my lessons in the morning at home and in the afternoon I went to training. At university, my midterm exams are next week while I have to participate in the championship. Sometimes professors refuse to postpone my exams. So, I do not have any alternative except to enter the final exams without having completed my other academic evaluations." As he described his life, Alaa Eldin went on to say: "My father is a police officer whose friend is fencing coach. My elder brother played fencing at the Police Federation Club. I sat the fencing examinations. At that time, fencing was not popular. We trained with the modern pentathlon team until we formed a small fencing team in the club. My first coach was Mohamed El-Sabahi. I started fencing with my older and youngest brothers. In the second year, I joined the national team. I won the first championship U-15. Then, I won the gold medal at the Junior U-17 World Fencing Championship in Italy 2008." Speaking to the Weekly, the champion added: "This year, I played five world cup championships. I missed only two world cups, and that was due to the revolution. I won first place at the Cadet and Junior Mediterranean Fencing Championships that started on 6 January . I won first place in the Junior U-20 World Cup championship in Portugal from 5 March. Before the championship in Jordan, I attended a training camp for two weeks in Poland with my international coach Atur Jamorzik." Executive Director of the National Project for Sports Excellence (NSE) Mahmoud Mourad said: "We started the programme with Alaa Eldin while he was playing in the juniors. This is the last year he gets to play in the junior category. The programme started six months ago with his Polish coach Jamorzik, the former coach of his country's fencing women's team. We tried to provide all the facilities for them, including training camps, trips abroad and the option to participate in international championships to gain experience." Alaa Eldin added: "The NSE provides programmes made for the best 18 players in individual sports. It especially targets the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Only two fencers are in this programme: I play the epee weapon and Alaa El-Sayed plays the foil weapon." "The result was an amazing silver medal in Jordan, which is a big achievement," Mourad added. "This is the first time throughout the Egyptian fencing history that an Egyptian fencer won a silver medal in the epée weapon in the Junior U-20 category. After every world championship, we evaluate players and coaches to decide whether to continue with the programme or not." On Alaa Eldin's plans for the 2012 London Olympics Games, Mourad said: "We will put forward a training plan with coach Jamorzik to qualify him for the Olympics. We are going to discuss this plan in the meeting of executive office of the NSE. Alaa Eldin is going to participate in four world championships and will have training abroad." Alaa Eldin said: "My main target is to qualify for the London Olympics, although my big dream is to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. Qualifying championships are five world cup and three Grand Prix championships. Also, the fencing African Championship is next July, to be held in Egypt. The top country will represent Africa in the Olympics. If Egypt does not win, we play Zone championships, as only two countries will represent the African continent. A third country can enter if its player was among the eight best players in the world ranking."
