CAIRO: Egypt won its first medal on Wednesday thanks to Hesham Mebsah who beat out Belarusian Andrei Kazusionak to win the bronze medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Egypt is participating in various sports competitions this year including handball, field hockey, badminton, synchronized swimming, judo, boxing, taekwondo, athletics, fencing and the pentathlon. Abir Khalil's impressive performance in the Women's 69 kg weight lifting competition has already earned her fifth place while Aheen El Hady qualified for the semifinals in Judo but was beaten by Mirali Sharipov from Uzbekistan. Ashraf El-Gharably made it to the men's under 60kg wrestling but was defeated by Eusebiu Iancu Diaconu from Romania. But it's the Chinese and the Americans who are getting most of the attention. The United states is in the lead with 10 gold, eight silver and 11 bronze - 29 in total. China is second place with 17 gold medals, five silver and five bronze - 27 in total. American Swimmer Michael Phelps has all eyes turned towards him and his quest to keep breaking Olympic records. After winning his fifth gold medal in the Beijing Olympics, he earned the title of the athlete with the most Olympic golds in history, with 11 gold medals earned throughout his career. The Olympics have always been exciting to watch and this time round has been no exception. With countries like China and the United States stealing the spotlight and breaking several records, the 2008 Olympics is set to make history. His victory in the US 800 freestyle relay team smashed the old record by more than four seconds. He also broke his previous score at prelims when he won the 200 meter butterfly in 1 minute, 52.03 seconds and set his fourth world record. Phelps is now hoping to take down Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich games by winning all eight of his events. Other Arab countries are also competing in a variety of games and participating in athletics, javelin, swimming and judo. Algerian Soraya Haddad won the bronze in the women's Judo for 52 kg. Her fellow countryman Amar Benikhlef won a silver medal in the same sport for the 90 kg. In the shooting games, Ahmed Almaktoum from United Arab Emirates came in 7th place in the double trap final and Adil Khalid Mohammad, also from United Arab Emirates, came 38th in the men's laser one person dingy race.
