Egypt’s Fencers Collect Medals at World Junior and Cadet Championships
The Egyptian fencing team snatched a whopping five medals at the 2023 World Junior and Cadet championships.
Egypt’s fencers refuse to let up, continuing to collect World Cup and championship medals at all levels.
This week, the men’s team claimed the epee and 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, according to the “Ahram Online” website.
The vastly improving Egyptians 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 the sabre 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 medain 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.
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 third for the first time behind 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.
The Egyptian performance at the Junior and Cadet World Cups improves every year, especially as new names appear.
