The Egyptian fencing team
Egypt’s fencers refuse to let up,continuing tocollect World Cup and championship medals at all levels.
This week, the men’s team claimed the epeeand sabre gold medals at the Youth and Juniors World Cup held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 1 to 9 April.The championships had 18 individual and team events with the participation of 48 men’s and 36 women’s teams.
The vastly improvingEgyptians beat Switzerland 45-43 to win a historic gold medal in the sport. The Egyptians had had a direct qualification to the round of 32 in which they scored their first victory against Canada 45-25. In the round of 16, Egypt beat Uzbekistan 45-32 before defeating Estonia 45-42 in the quarter-finals, followed by an impressive 45-34 win against Hungary in the semi-final. Then came the gold against the Swiss.
The Under-20 team comprised Mohamed Al-Sayed, Mohamed Yassin, Mahmoud Al-Sayed and Youssef Shamel. The team is coached by Al-Sayed Sami.
In addition to the men’s team gold medal, the Egyptians also won another gold, a silver and two bronze medals in the same event. The second gold medal was collected by thesabre team. Mohamed Yassin garnered the individual gold medal in the U-20, while the men’s team claimed the silver medal. Yassin won the gold medal in the men’s individual epee. Yassin faced Switzerland’s Theo Brochard in the final of the junior men’s individual epee junior, winning 14-13. In the semi-finals, he beat American Samuel Imrek 15-11.
“I’m really proud of my performance and my level. I’ve been chasing this title since 2021 and I’ve reached the final and lost twice in a row, so it was a challenge for me to achieve that,” Yassin said, adding, “I had a bad performance all this season, and today I tried to do my best and I did.” His compatriot Al-Sayed finished sixth in the same event.
“So special, so amazing, we worked so hard for it,” Mohamed Al-Sayed said. “Two years in a row, we won it. Today, the competition was not easy. I’m so proud of my dad, my team and my coach, my family, thank you all, I love you all. We showed who has the strongest mentality. I am so happy!”Ahmed Hashem clinched the U-17 bronze medal, while Abdel-Rahman Tolba claimed the U17 foil bronze medal.
In the girls’ event, Hana Al-Eraqi finished fifth after losing the quarter-final against Hungary’s Blanca Nagui 15-9.
With five medals including two gold, one silver and two bronze, Egypt came in thirdfor the first timebehind the US which finished first with 15 medals including eight gold, two silver and five bronze. Hungary ended second with nine medals, including four gold and five bronze. With the performance, Egypt overtook the bigger nations of the discipline, including Italy, Poland, China and Great Britain.
“I am completely satisfied with this performance. I am very proud of my fencers. They have continued their momentum and have made great progress compared to previous editions,” said Abdel-Moneim Al-Husseini, president of the Egyptian Fencing Federation.
The Egyptian performance at the Junior and Cadet World Cups improves every year, especially as new names appear.
In the last edition in 2022 in Dubai, Egypt finished eighth with three medals including one gold, silver and bronze. In 2021, during the World Junior-Cadet Fencing Championships in Egypt, Egypt collecteda gold, one silver and three bronze to secure fifth place.
At the closing ceremony acting president of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) Emmanuel Katsiadakissaid the event was “a great success”. The FIE flag was passed on from President of the Bulgarian Fencing Federation VelichkaHristeva to Abdullah Alsunaid, secretary general of the Saudi Fencing Federation which will host the World Junior Fencing Championships and cadets 2024.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 April, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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