Yearender 2018: Ihab becomes Egypt's best weightlifter of all time; squash steals limelight
Ghada Abdel-Kader , Monday 31 Dec 2018
We take a quick glance at the achievements of Egyptian athletes in several individual sports in 2018


Wrestler Mohamed Ihab makes history:

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The 29-year-old weightlifter won three medals and finished second at the World Weightlifting Championships in Ashgabat in November, just 1kg behind gold medalist Lü Xiaojun of China. This championship qualifies for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Ihab won gold, bronze and silver medals. He clinched goldafter lifting 173kg in snatch, setting a world record in the process. He also won bronze after lifting 200kg in clean and jerk and silver after lifting a total of 373kg in the 81kg category.

He has become Egypt's most decorated weightlifter with four gold medals, ahead of Nahla Ramadan and the late Khedr El-Touni, who won three world medals each.

More medals for wrestler Sara Samir:

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The 20-year-old female weightlifter clinched a bronze medal after lifting 111kg in the snatch event, one silver after lifting 141kg in clean and jerk and another silver with a total of 252kg in the women's 71kg category at the World Weightlifting championships in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Samir won two silver medals and one bronze medal in the 71kg weight category inboth Mediterranean games and Arab Championships in 2018.The 2016 Olympic medalist will switch to the 79kg category ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Games, according to the head of the weightlifting FA.

Samir was the first Arab woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal and the first Egyptian woman to win an Olympic medal.She brought home two Olympic medals: gold in the 2014 youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and bronze in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Squash domination:

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Egyptian players dominated squash in 2018 in unprecedented fashion.

"This achievement never happened before. For the first time in squash history one nation holds all the top spots of world rankings and championships," said Karim El- Mestikawy, a board member of the Egyptian Squash Federation.

Raneem Al-Welili, 29, reached her fourth final in the Hong Kong Open while world No.1 in the men's ranking Mohamed El-Shorbagy captured his fourth Hong Kong Open title in five years and his 35th PSA title of his career.

Egypt's squash players dominated the PSA world rankings in men, women and juniors.

In the men's rankings, Mohamed El-Shorbagy came on top followed by Ali Farag (2nd), Tarek Momen (4th), Marwan El-Shorbagy (5th), Karim Abdel-Gawad (9th) and Mohamed Abul-Ghar (10th).

Raneem Al-Welili, 29, returned to the top of the PSA world ranking for female players in December, followed by compatriots Nour El-Sherbini (2nd), Nour E l-Tayeb (3rd) and Nouran Gohar (7th).

In the PSA Junior (boys U19) world rankings, Mostafa Asal is on top, followed by Marwan Tarek (6th) and Omar El-Torkey (20th). In the WSF (World Squash Federation) U19 world rankings for girls, Hania El-Hammamy is on top, followed by Rawan El-Araby (2nd) and Nada Abbas (3rd).

First female boxing coach

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Nadia Abdel-Hamid, 29, became the first-ever female boxing coach in Egypt, the Arab region and Middle East. She took part in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in Argentina.

She became a professional boxing coach in 2017, reaching a two-star level that is approved and certified by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).The highest global standard is a three-star level.

She led the senior and youth teams to some impressive performances throughout 2017 and 2018.

Abdel-Hamid steered her teams to five gold medals in the Arab Junior Boxing Championship in Egypt in February 2018, three gold medals in AFBC Youth African Confederation Boxing Championshipsin Morocco in May 2018, two bronze medals in AIBA Youth, Men's and Women's World Championships in Hungary and an Olympic medal in Argentina.

Records for swimmer Farida Osman

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The 2017 World Championship bronze medalist Farida Osman won three medals at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain.

She won a gold medal in both 50 m freestyle, setting a Mediterranean Games record of (24.83) seconds, and in 50 metre butterfly with another record of (25.48) seconds while, in the 100m butterfly, she took silver medal with a time of 58.51 seconds.

Wrestler Samar Hamza's achievement

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Female wrestler Samar Hamza, 23, finished 5th in the women's 72kg freestyle event at the Senior World Wrestling Championship in Hungary last October, marking Egypt's best-ever wrestling achievement for women.

For the first time, an Egyptian female wrestler managed to reach the World Championship semi finals. Enas Mostafa was the first to reach the semis at the Rio Olympics.

Hamza also participated in the 2016 Olympics but was eliminated from the first round.

At the U23 World Wrestling Championship in November, Egyptians also showed great potential.

Greco-Roman Mohamed El-Sayed, 19, won a gold medal in the 67kg event and Abdel-Latif Mohamed, 23, won the bronze in the 130kg category. It was the best performance for Egyptian wrestlers at this championship in 20 years.

El-Gendy/Abdel Maksoud -- promising Modern pentathletes:

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Modern pentathletes Ahmed Osama El-Gendy and Salma Abdel Maksoud gave Egypt its first ever gold Olympic medals in modern pentathlon, in both the men and women categories at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

The promising El-Gendy, 18, snatched gold in the men's individual event with 1,179 points. His scores were 268 in fencing, 307 in swimming and 604 in laser-run.

Female penathlete Abdel-Maksoud, also 18, snatched gold with 1,067 points. Her scores were 228 in fencing and riding, 283 in swimming and 556 in laser-run (combined Shooting and running) in the women's individual event.

Abdel-Maksoud set a world and Olympic record for the U-18 category with 1,067 points at Buneos Aires beating the previous world record of 1,065 points set by Turkish İlke Özyüksel.

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