CAIRO - Egypt are maintaining their lead in the medals table on the 11th day of the 2011 Arab Games that run from December 9-23 in Doha, Qatar. The Egyptian athletes now have 180 medals – 69 gold, 62 silver and 49 bronze. Tunisia are second with 92 medals, (37 gold, 27 silver and 28 bronze), while Qatar are in third place with 87 medals (29 gold, 26 silver and 32 bronze). Morocco are fourth with 84 medals (24 gold, 15 silver and 45 bronze) and Kuwait in fifth place with 45 medals (10 gold, 15 silver and 20 bronze). Saudi Arabia are in sixth place with 36 medals (10 gold, 10 silver and 16 bronze) and Algeria in seventh with 58 medals (9 gold, 19 silver and 30 bronze). Bahrain are eighth place with 33 medals (9 gold, 9 silver and 15 bronze) and the UAE in ninth place with 25 medals (8 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze). Qatar is hosting the 12th edition of the games ahead of the 2022 Football World Cup, which will also be held in this Gulf state. Super swimmers Egypt have been dominating the swimming competition at the 2011 Arab Games so far, with Egypt's women swimmers grabbing all four golds, two of them yesterday, while Tunisia stole the show in the men's competition. In the 200m women's competition, Egypt's Hania Moro grabbed the gold medal, while Tunisia's Sarah al-Genif snatched silver and Jordan's Sarah Hiana bronze. In the 100m women's competition, Egypt's Farida Othman grabbed gold, as Algeria's Foulla Bin Nasser settled for silver and Lebanon Katia Bashroush scooped bronze. In the 50m women's competition, Morocco's Sarah el-Bakri grabbed the gold medal, Egypt's Mai Moustafa cornered the silver and Tunisia's Sarah Lejeif bagged the bronze. In the men's 200m individual competition, Tunisia's Osama el-Molloli snatched the gold medal, while Kuwaiti's Youssef el-Sukkari picked up the silver and Egypt's Marwaan Hilal scooped the bronze. "I am happy and proud at what Arab swimming has achieved at the Arab Games," said el-Molloli, stressing that more talented Arab swimmers should be vying for medals in global competitions. In the 50m men's competition, Tunisia's Wassiem el-Loumi snatched gold, while his team mate Tilal Mirabet settled for silver, as Egypt's Ahmed Bayoumi and Algerian Nabil Kabaab shared third place and bronze.
‘Strong' golds! Meanwhile, Egypt's strongmen have been throwing their weight around at the 2011 Arab Games. In the men's -105kg competition, Egypt's Ibrahim Morsi grabbed the gold medal, while Palestinian Hossam Hamada came second and Libya's Mohamed Bin Saeed settled for bronze. In the men's +105kg competition, Egypt's Abdel-Rahman el-Sayyed snatched the gold medal, while Kuwaiti's Hassan el-Hussani picked up silver and Qatari Eissa el-Ansari bronze. In the men's 69kg competition, Egypt's Mohamed Abdel-Baqi grabbed the gold medal, while, in the men's 62kg competition, Iraqi's Karar Mohamed snatched gold, Egyptian Ahmed Saad came second and the bronze medal went to Iraqi Mohamed Ali. In the women's +75kg competition, Egypt's Nahla Ramadan cornered the gold, while Algerian Thouria el-Shawaf came second and Jordan's Rolla Mohamed ended up third. In the women's 75kg competition, Egypt's Abeer Khalil scooped gold, Sudan's Mahassen Mohamed came second and Yasmin Abbas from the UAE wound up a respectable third.
Three medals for fencing Egyptian fencers succeeded in snatching three different medals. In the men's competition, Egypt's Alaa Eldin Abul Qassem snatched the gold medal, while Lebanon's Zein Shatto came second with the silver medal, as Egypt's Tareq Fouad and Tunisia's Kareem Kamoun shared third place and bronze. In the women's competition, Tunisia's Azaa Basies ‘stole' gold, while Egypt's Mennah Ahmed came second and Lebanon's Alexandra Tunous third. Beirut's brilliant basketballers! The Lebanese women's national team thrashed their Qatari counterparts 72-34 to grab the gold medal, while the Egyptian team picked up silver and Jordan bronze. The Lebanese ladies won all their five matches in their group against Egypt, Jordan, Somalia, Kuwait and Qatar, collecting the maximum ten points. The Egyptian team came second with nine points, with only one loss to Lebanon, while Jordan came third with eight points, beating Qatar, Somalia and Kuwait, but losing to Lebanon and the Pharaohs.
Egypt's handballers progress Egypt's handball team yesterday booked their ticket to the final in the Arab Games, comfortably defeating their Saudi counterparts 31-21. The Egyptian team achieved two new records in their previous game against Sudan. The first record was an incredible scoreline of 26-0 in the Pharaohs' favour at half-time; the second was an incredible final score of 58-5. The Egyptian handball team, who have won the Arab Games title three times, had started their campaign with victory over Morocco, stunning them 46-19. Meanwhile, the Algerian women team held their Tunisian counterparts to a 29-29 draw (15-12, 14-17), as the Jordanians narrowly defeated the Qataris 23-22 (11-9, 12-13). The above victory put Algeria at the top of their group with seven points, with Tunisia second on five points, Jordan third on four points and Qatar last with no points at all.
Taekwondo success Egypt's taekwondo players have snatched one gold, one silver and one bronze at the 2011 Arab Games. In the women's 67kg individual competition, Jordan's Nancy Abu Badr grabbed the gold medal, while Egypt's Hend Moustafa came second and Morocco's Hakima el-Meslhi and Sudanese Miriam Mahmoud shared third place. In the women's 46kg competition, Egypt's Aya Ali got gold, Jordan's Christina scooped silver and Tunisia's Fadia el-Farhani and Morocco's Naiema Nader shared bronze. In the men's 58kg individual competition, Egypt's Tamer Bayoumi grabbed gold, while Libya's Mohamed Telish plundered the silver medal, as Qatari Mohamed Daher and Yemeni Yasser Moterif shared third place and bronze.
