Tunisia wins medal table at African Championships

Host nation Tunisia showed its power in judo with five gold medals and 16 medals in total. The home crowd was satisfied with Saturday’s gold for Hela Ayari U52kg and Faicel Jaballah who captured the double in this tournament winning both plus and Open category. Sensational were the four gold medals for the Egyptian men, at the second and last individual day Egypt added another two titles, for the first time since 2009 four different Egyptian judoka won a gold medal at the African Championships. With seven medals in the men’s division Egypt can be confident for the Olympic Games as the form is better than ever before.

Algeria won the most medals of all teams; 18 in total but could only win twice in the seven finals. Morocco won two gold medals, a kind of expected number but the two gold medals and 7 medals in total was an amazing result for Cameroon. Today Hortence Vanessa Mballa Atangana won another gold medal in the Open weight class. She won gold U78kg on Friday and the judoka of 78kg surprised both favourites Nihel Cheikh Rouhou (TUN) in the semi final, as Sonia Asselah (ALG) in the final. An absolute sensation. On Saturday Paule Sitcheping won a silver medal U57kg and today Dieudonne Dolassem won silver in the open weight class for men. This was the absolute maximum for Cameroon’s 90kg judoka. The ‘lightweight in this open division couldn’t prevent Faicel Jabbalah winning his second title of the tournament.

Besides the Open tournament, the lightweights were scheduled on Saturday and as expected it was Taciana Lima (GBS) who captured the gold medal U48kg. Lima defeated Olfa Saoudi (TUN) in the final and Lima claimed the fourth consecutive African title since she switched from Brazil to Guinea-Bissau.

Tunisia could cheer for Hela Ayari though in the category U52kg. Ayari bested Meriem Moussa of Algeria in the final, last year’s bronze medallist. Last year in Libreville Ayari defeated 2012 Olympic sensation Christianne Legentil who finished fifth today.

Algeria’s Ratiba Tariket secured a gold medal for Algeria U57kg and took revenge for last year’s silver. In the final she was better than Paule Sitcheping (CMR) who overcame title defender Nesria Jlassi (TUN) in the semi final, quite a sensational top four in this division.

In the men’s division Egypt was super powerful winning four gold medals, but gold U60kg wasn’t expected. Ahmed Adelrahman won all his four matches with Fraj Dhouibi (TUN) in the final as victim with a yuko difference. Title defender Yassine Moudatir (MAR) was surprisingly caught in the second round by Nayr Pedro of Angola.

Morocco picked up the gold medal though U66kg after Imad Bassou convincingly won his final against Egyptian favourite Mohamed Abdelmawgoud. Bassou also defeated title defender Houd Zourdani (ALG) in the semi final and became the glorious winner in this competitive weight class where Bassou will make a great jump in the World Ranking list after his coupe.

Mohamed Mohyeldin was superior in his category U73kg, the division with the most participants. 23 Judoka and Mohyeldin retained the title. Likely only Ahmed El Meziati of Morocco estimated a place for him in the final. The sensational number 274 of the World Ranking list was defeated in the last second of the match and gave Morocco new hope for future medals. Mohyeldin, who was African Games winner in 2015 as well, participates in the major events in the IJF Tour, but couldn’t convince yet at world level in this strong category. However he is winning ground and took bronze at the European Open in Oberwart in February and may be a threat for some Olympic contenders.