Egypt was comfortably crowned the winner of the 11th pan-Arab Games. Inas Mazhar reports on a no-contest championship The football gold medal won on Sunday was Egypt's last medal in the event, increasing its already record haul to an overall 344 medals -- 148 gold, 102 silver and 94 bronze. Far behind, Tunisia finished in second place with an overall 147 medals -- 63 gold, 34 silver and 50 bronze medals. Algeria was third with 32 gold, 45 silver and 52 bronze medals for 129 medals. Morocco followed in fourth place with 93 medals, 22 gold, 32 silver and 39 bronze medals and Syria fifth with an overall 91 medals; 19 gold, 24 silver and 48 bronze medals. Four out of the 22 participating countries did not win a medal. The Egyptian football team beat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the last match of the tournament to win the gold medal. Hossam Ghali opened the scoring for Egypt in the first half after Saudi player Reda Tukar was given the red card for bringing down Mohamed Abou-Treika. Emad Meteb, the tournament's top scorer with five goals, added Egypt's second with only one minute to go before the end of the first half. Both goals were outside gems. Saudi Arabia's superstar Yasser Al-Qahtani scored his team's only goal from a penalty kick. The last time the Egyptian football team claimed the football gold medal at the pan-Arab Games was in 1992 in Syria when they also beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final. Egypt's renowned coach Mahmoud El-Gohari, currently the national team's consultant, was at the helm at the time and the scorer was Egypt's veteran footballer Hossam Hassan who at age 42 is still playing. The Libyan team claimed the silver medal while the Saudis won the bronze. The medals were presented by Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif who represented Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the final match and the closing ceremony in Cairo Stadium. In addition to the 32 sports which the countries participated in, the Arab Games witnessed cultural and artistic events on the sidelines. A fine arts exhibition for Arab artists was held along side the Games and was inaugurated by Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni. Sports culture, medical, coaching and media seminars were also held during the Games in addition to daily press conferences for the heads of delegations. Unlike the pageantry of the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony was simple and brief. Following the football medals' distribution, fireworks lit the sky as parachutists jumped from helicopters hovering above the stadium, each carrying the flag of one of the participating countries. The tournament's flag was then presented to Arab League officials for the next championship four years from now. Since the next host has not yet been decided upon, the flag of the tournament wasn't delivered to a country as is the tradition. Only Lebanon has applied to host the next event in 2011. A final decision will be made at the end of next year. Lebanon was a host of the eighth Pan Arab Games in Beirut in 1997. According to Zeid Al-Khaiami, the Games' director in Beirut 1997, Beirut is planning to host the 2011 edition of the pan-Arab Games. "But this time, we promise a spectacular and great event. In 1997, Beirut had just came out of civil war and we took the challenge of hosting the Games then, but now the whole country is different and we have a new infrastructure and sporting facilities. We are keen on having the Games back in Beirut in 2011," Al-Khaiami told Al-Ahram Weekly during his stay in Cairo with the Lebanese delegation. The sporting and organisational success of Egypt in this latest pan-Arab Games encouraged National Sports Council president Hassan Sakr to announce that Egypt was now looking forward to hosting the Mediterranean Games in 2017. Sakr said he would meet with the National Olympic Committee's board next week to study the possibility.
