Sunday, August 8, 2021

Egypt at the end of #Tokyo2020 : Truly Historical Gold and Silver Medals in Karate Kumite and Modern Pantheon

Now, this is a finale for Tokyo 2020 Olympics that I love, all of us back in Egypt love to be precise. What I love in this finale is that we did not expect it all.

Egypt got Golden and Silver medals on Saturday in four hours only for the first time in Karate Kumite.

Karateka Feryal Abdel Aziz won the country’s gold medal in the final of the +61kg Karate Kumite and Modern Pantheon player won the silver medal in the game’s Individual category.

Feryal Abdel Aziz and Ahmed El-Gendy
Feryal Abdel Aziz with her Gold medal and Ahmed El-Gendy with his silver medal 
"NTB and Getty" 

Both made history for the country for real.

Sadly no one paid attention to El-Gendy except when the news came from Tokyo that he won the Silver Medal and we knew more about the 21-years-old champion.

Ahmed El-Gendy as he finished 
the last race in the Pantheon as the second
"Getty" 

We knew now that the Al-Shams Club Pantheon champion already won the gold medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and a bronze at the World Championship in Cairo earlier this year.

Needless to say, there is no real coverage for this important and hard sport in Egypt.

El-Gendy got Egypt’s first-ever medal as well as its first silver medal too in the Modern Pantheon thanks to El-Shams Club hardworking player. 

Ahmed El-Gendy and his Silver medal in Tokyo
Ahmed El-Gendy and his Silver medal in Tokyo "Getty" 

It is the country’s first Silver medal after four bronze medals in Taekwondo, Wrestling and Karate Kumite. 

It is Egypt’s 11th silver medal in its Olympic record.

Moving to our Golden girl, Karateka Feryal Abdel Aziz who made history by all measures.

Feryal Abdel Aziz in Tokyo
Strong Princess Feryal Abdel Aziz from Tokyo "Getty" 

Karate Princess Feryal Abdel Aziz won her first gold medal when she defeated Azerbaijan’s Irina Zaresta in the final of the +61Kg Category on Saturday.

Feryal during the semi-final game in Tokyo
Feryal during the semi-final game "Getty" 

It was the greatest moment to see our Egyptian flag raised and our National Anthem played loud in the Tokyo Olympics after 17 years exactly in Athens Olympics

“This is the least thing I can present to Egypt, If I stay thanking God till the end of my life for this moment, it won’t be enough. This is the best moment in my life” 

Our champion Feryal Abdel Aziz said proudly to the BeinTV channel, the exclusive broadcaster of the Olympics in the Arab world. “The Nasser Al-Khelaifi TV sports empire thankfully aired the game freely on Saturday. New generations won’t believe that we used to watch the Olympics for free for real in the past”

Here is the moment she won and please focus on her mother wearing blue “screaming” from Cairo’s Mataria “Oh my heart, oh my heart”.

“Thanks for my mother, for my mother for my mother, it is your achievement and not my achievement for real” 

These are the words Feryal told Bein winning our hearts and minds in Cairo after securing a 5-4 victory over Kazakhstan's Sofya Berultseva in the semi-final.

Feryal’s mom is like many mothers who spent hours supporting their kids especially their girls while playing Karate in Egypt despite all hardships.

I know that scene of moms taking their kids to Karate lessons in the clubs, I grew up seeing it and it is still going strong.

It is a Gold medal for those moms and their little girls to pursue their dreams.

The 22-yeas-old is the first Egyptian woman to win an Olympic Gold in history.

She is also our fourth woman to win a medal in the Olympics.

It is the 8th Gold medal Egypt achieves in the Olympics

This is the first Gold Medal Egypt has scored since Wrestler Karam Gabr’s Gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 96kg at the 2004 Athens Games.

Feryal Abdel Aziz of Egypt and her gold medal
in the +61 kg Karate Kumite in the Olympics "Getty" 

The young pharmacist is the first Egyptian, African and Arab woman to win the Gold Medal in the +61 kg Karate Kumite in the Olympics.

Abdel Aziz is also considered the second Egyptian, African and Arab woman to win a medal in the Olympics in general in Karate Kumite after Giana Farouk who scored the bronze medal on Friday.

Egypt has won 6 medals in the Tokyo 2020; four bronze, one silver and one gold.

This is the biggest number of medals Egypt has ever won in the Olympics since 1928.

After our medal boost on Saturday, Egypt jumped in the Olympics Medal Count and We have become 53rd.

Some achievements we must mention

A special salute to Egypt’s National Handball team after losing to Spain in the Semi-Final in the Olympics.

They did not make it to the bronze but they made history as the first Arab/Egyptian team to reach a semi-final in the Olympics as well as the first Arab/Egyptian handball team to reach a semi-final in the Olympics.

It is a great achievement and raises from the Egyptian national handball which has established itself worldwide as a strong team.

A huge salute to the handball boys especially their captain Ahmed Al-Ahmar who announced that he would quit playing internationally following the Olympics.

Thanks, Captain Al-Ahmar, you are an Egyptian GAOT for real.

People were not paying attention to El-Gendy because they were following the Handball game

Good luck to our athletes and thanks to our medalists. We are waiting for better results and more medals inshallah in Paris 2024.

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