ALEXANDRIA - Egypt's Modern Pentathlon Team have booked two seats for the 2012 Olympics Games to be held in London, after winning both the women and men's African Modern Pentathlon qualifying tournament, which wound up in Alexandria on Saturday. Athletes Aya Medany and Yasser Hefni bagged the two Olympic places for Egypt on behalf of the African continent, after grabbing the gold medals. Aya grabbed gold and the first place for women with 5,072 points, while Hefni snatched the gold and first place for men with 5,784 points. "The competition was fierce and our athletes have done very well to book two places for Africa in next year's Olympics," Mohamed el-Demerdash Touni, the President of the Egyptian Federation of Modern Pentathlon (EFMP), proudly said at the closing ceremony. The modern pentathlon is a sporting contest consisting of five events: pistol shooting, fencing, 200m freestyle swimming, show jumping and a 3km run. "Competitors earn points for their performance in each of the five events. The total points scored in the first four events determine the starting order for the final event," explained the official. Naturally, Touni wants his pentathletes to maintain their international standards. "We are now on top in the Arab and African championships," he said proudly. "In the world of modern pentathlon, with its variety of locations and unique competition style, a player can be great one day and bad the next," added Touni, who described Aya as wonderful. Four countries competed in this African tournament: South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and of course Egypt, the organising country. The Olympic Games will be held in London from July 27 to August 12, 2012. "The final stages of the tournament witnessed fierce competition among athletes,"el-Touni added. The Egyptian National Team U-18, meanwhile, won the African Modern Pentathlon Championship that concluded last week in Egypt at the Cairo International Stadium. The Egyptian athletes achieved a cleaned sweep, snatching gold, silver and bronze. "Egypt's youth did something unprecedented, winning all six medals [two gold, two silver and two bronze]," Touni added. In the U-18 male competition, Egypt's Anas Abdul Salam won gold medal with 4,660 points, Ahmed el-Seweidi silver with 4,348 points and Mohamed Walid bronze with 4,200 points. As in the senior championship in Alexandria, the competition was fierce among the same four nations (South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Egypt). In the U-18 female competition, Egypt's Reem Yakout grabbed gold with 3,788 points, Heidi Adel snatched silver with 3,692 points and Sarah Ahmed grabbed bronze with 3,636 points. The closing ceremony was attended by Major-General Mohamed Sameh, the president of the African Modern Pentathlon Union, members of the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation and Anthony Bradford, the president of South Africa's Modern Pentathlon Association. The EFMP, established in 1975, joined the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) in 1976. "The EFMP has a promising plan for increasing the number of people doing this sport in Egypt,” added Touni, stressing that the ideal adult age for the modern pentathlete is between 22 and 28. “We are working hard to expand this sport all over Egypt. In order to develop and promote the game, we should gauge the standard of our athletes and start from there," Touni, who is a member of the UIPM, pointed out.
