African Fencing: Nigeria shines as Egypt dominates

Team Nigeria turned up with an improved performance on the second day of the Cadet and Junior African Fencing Championship in Lagos as the duo of Natania Emusa and Amanda Nwakalor recorded a series of wins in the preliminary round. 

In the girls’ épée, Emusa defeated South African Mpho Mohlala and also got the better of Angolan Florida Alvaro in their contest before bowing to her compatriot, Chizora Nwokocha. 

Nwakalor, on her part, defeated Safietou Djiba of Senegal as well as Doria Nenni of Benin Republic 

Meanwhile, Egypt maintained its reputation as the top nation in the continent as they had a near clean sweep of medals decided so far. 

In the individual women’s foil, Egyptian Jana Ehab took gold at the expense of her teammate, Malek Hamza while Lojain Khaled from Egypt and Malek Tantast of Algeria ended as joint bronze medal winners. 

In the Épée, Mahmoud Elsayed took gold with fellow Egyptian Ahmed Hussein winning silver while Algeria’s Houssam Berkane and Eslam Osama finished joint third. 

Egypt yet again dominated the Men’s sabre as Ahmed Elsedawy and Yassin Khodir respectively took gold and silver. Their countryman, Fares Basem, and Algeria’s Lofti Ibrahim got bronzes as third-place finishers. 

The tournament which has over 150 fencers representing 12 countries ends on Sunday. 

TheNation/Nnenna.O