Egyptian athletes of notable individual achievements are determined to be as good if not better in 2008. Inas Mazhar reports on some world class feats Squash champion Amr Shabana remains the best Egyptian athlete of the past year. With only days to go before the end of the year, he was named Player of the Year at the 2007 World Squash Awards in a ceremony in London. Shabana, 28, maintained his grip on the PSA world number one ranking throughout the year, winning the Windy City Open and Tournament of Champions titles at the beginning of 2007. He rounded off the year in sensational style by reeling off four PSA Super Series titles in a row -- the Saudi International, Qatar Classic, Hong Kong Open and then the World Open in Bermuda, to bring his career PSA trophy haul to 20. Another Egyptian squash hero, Rami Ashour, was voted the PSA Young Player of the Year for the second time. By the time he had celebrated his 20th birthday in September, the record two- time world junior champion had already picked up five PSA Tour titles in the year, all against seeded players. In the Kuwait Open final in April, Ashour beat Shabana for the first time, and in the November PSA world rankings, fell short by just one point of replacing his compatriot at the top of the world list. Later in the year, in his first appearance in the event, Ashour won the flagship PSA Tour championship, the Super Series Finals. Ranim El-Welili, Egypt's best female squash player, successfully defended her title in the final of the Hoe Hin White Flower Ointment World Junior Women's Squash Championship in Hong Kong to become only the second woman in history to win the prestigious World Squash Federation title twice. But the 18-year-old event favourite from Alexandria had the toughest battle of her campaign, conceding her first game of the tournament before overcoming France's No 2 seed Camille Serme 9-2, 9-4, 5-9, 9-3 in 41 minutes to repeat her maiden title victory in Belgium two years ago. Discuss star Omar El-Ghazali, 23, was sixth in the world championship in Osaka, and took the silver medal at the World University Games in Bangkok in August and gold in the All-Africa Games in Algeria in July. Ahmed Moawad was sixth in the 12-kilometre World Forests Marathon held in the forests of Austria. In boxing, lightweight Ramadan Abdel-Ghafar was fifth at the World Boxing Championship in the US. Egyptian marksmen and markswomen qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as did the rowers. The modern pentathlon's Ayah Medani won the gold medal at the World Cup in China in August, becoming the first non-European to claim such a medal in the history of the sport. Her teammate Yasser Hefni also netted the gold medal in the World Youth Championship in South Africa, overcoming 43 challengers. En route to first place, Hefni outpointed the Russian and Hungarian world champions. In chess, Ahmed Adli checkmated all he met in the World Under-20 Championship in Armenia in October. Taekwondo bronze medallist in Athens 2004 Tamer Salah started the year by winning the bronze medal at the World Championship in China. However, Salah failed to qualify for the Beijing Games after finishing fourth in international qualifications held in the English city Manchester. He also tripped up in African qualifications in Tripoli. However, officials in the Taekwondo Federation are hoping Salah can still go to Beijing as a wild card. In swimming, Mohamed El-Zanati glittered in the World Open Water Championship by winning the bronze medal in the 25km event in Australia in March. In the same tournament, El-Zanati ended up fourth in the 10km race, thus qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. In weightlifting, Abdel-Rahman Mohamed Abdel-Rahman won three medals at the World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic in the 105kg category. In fencing, Iman Shaaban garnered the silver medal in the foil at the women's under-20 World Championship in Turkey. The bodybuilders confirmed their supremacy as the world champions by winning five medals in the World Championship in Korea. Four silver medals were won by Anwar El-Amawi, Mustafa Nessim, Anwar Abdel-Tawab and Mahmoud Fadalai while El-Shahat Mabrouk took home a bronze. The karate team picked up the World Junior Championship in Turkey in October. The team won five gold medals via Mustafa Ibrahim and Ibrahim Magdi in the individual kata. In team kata Mustafa Ibrahim, Saadeddin Saad and Sherif Seif added a third gold, Karim Mahmoud took the fourth in the kumitee in the 60kg division, and Mohamed Abdullah collected the fifth gold in 95kg. Female athletes Sara Assem and Shaimaa Abou El-Yazzid claimed two bronze medals.
