17th African Artistic Gymnastics Championships
Tshwane, South Africa: The 17th African Artistic Gymnastics Championships gets underway later this week at Heartfelt Arena in Tshwane amid much excitement.
Continental powerhouses Egypt, who annexed 23 of the 28 gold medals on offer at last year’s championships in their home country, will be sending a powerful team to compete. All-around defending men’s champion, Mohamed Afify, who, in addition to the overall title, also won the high bar final and medalled on rings and parallel bars, will spearhead a strong North African challenge. Omar Mohamed, the runner-up overall in Egypt and the winner of four apparatus golds, will also compete. Mohamed was the all-around champion from 2021 and also participated in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Algeria and Morocco will also provide stiff competition. Hillal Metidji, bronze medallist overall and silver medallist on both parallel bars and high bar last year, will lead the Algerian challenge, while Abderrazak Nasser, who secured gold on his specialist apparatus, the pommel horse, and bronze on vault, will offer plenty for the Moroccans.
South Africa’s only senior medals in the men’s competition came from Luke James and Muhammad-Khaalid Mia, both on floor. James is studying in the USA and hence not available, but the team of three, which also comprises Aidan Maguire and Ruan Lange, and who have been training together consistently ahead of the event, will be hoping for a better showing in home conditions.
Among the women, South Africa were far more dominant, with Olympic star and national champion Caitlin Rooskrantz hoping to defend her overall title on home soil. Rooskrantz became the first South African woman in eight years to win the all-around title in Egypt last year, where she also secured gold on bars.
But Egypt’s two Jana’s, Mahmoud and Aboelhasan, will challenge strongly for supremacy. Mahmoud won both vault and floor, while Aboelhasan collected three silver medals, for all-around, beam and floor. So strong is the Egyptian challenge, that Zeina Ibrahim, gold medallist on beam last year, has not even made the team this time around.
All 15 women’s medals in Egypt were shared by the host nation and South Africa, with Egypt collecting nine and South Africa six overall, so expect the battle for honours to be contested by these two nations, but Algeria will send a team of five gymnasts to try and mount a different challenge.
Mali, Angola, Cameroon and Senegal will also send representatives to compete, but for these novice nations, their main aim would be to gain experience in continental conditions.
This event also serves as a qualification event for World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September, which is one of four opportunities gymnasts will have to qualify for the Paris Olympics in 2024. Only one men’s team and one women’s team can qualify automatically from these African championships, while two other male gymnasts from a non-qualifying team and four other female gymnasts from a non-qualifying team, with a maximum limit of two gymnasts per federation, may also qualify for the individual all-around competition. As such, the battle for supremacy is Tshwane is likely to be fiercely competitive.
The event is open to the public and entrance is free of charge. For the daily programmes, please visit www.gymnasticssa.co.za.
