Egyptian female weightlifters bagged six medals in the 58kg category in the jerk and the snatch yesterday, the second day of the junior competitions in the African Weightlifting Championships being held in Egypt. The event runs until Friday. The beautiful Donia Abdel-Rahman set a new record in the jerk, grabbing two gold medals. She also snatched a silver in the snatch, while the talented Shaimaa Gamal bagged three bronze medals. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Alaa Mohamed Zaki bagged three gold medals in the 44kg category in the snatch. Alaa also won gold in the jerk, in which she set a new Egyptian record, while Kholoud Miseach of Tunisia ‘stole' three silvers. On Sunday, Egypt bagged 21 different medals, 13 gold medals and 8 silvers, in the men and women's junior competitions. Also on Sunday, Lamia Abul Hassan won the 48kg snatch competitions, grabbing six silver medals. In the men's competitions, Moustafa Atef came first in the 56kg snatch competitions, ‘swiping' six golds and setting a new record in this category. Also on Sunday, Tunisian weightlifter Tarek Etemi plundered two gold medals in the 50kg snatch category in the junior weightlifting competitions. He also won gold in the 73kg snatch. Etemi also won gold for a total lift of 164kg and silver for the four-jerk, being beaten by an Algerian competitor, who lifted an impressive 93kg. South African weightlifter Shelton Clary came third and grabbed bronze. Seven weightlifters from Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, Nigeria and Mauritius participated in yesterday morning's men and women's competitions. Nigerian Toussaint grabbed gold, while Egypt's Lamia Ramadan came second and her compatriot Alaa Zaki settled for bronze. Fathi Zoreiq, the technical coach of the Egyptian weightlifting teams, was delighted that Egypt had already won so many medals, in just the first two days of the African championship. “I am really very happy,” Zoreiq said, hoping for more in the coming days. “The African Championships are always a real chance to discover new African weightlifting stars. The results give us an indication of what African weightlifting will look like in the next few years”.
