14 Sep 2022
Aspire Academy student-athletes claimed a total of 17 medals at the recent Arab Junior Swimming Championships in Cairo, Egypt.
The coaching staff are rightly proud of the team’s achievements at the event.
“We all performed very well,” gold-medallist Omar Abouelela said.
“This event was an excellent opportunity for the younger ones, especially the 12 and 13-year-olds to participate in an international event other than GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) ones.”
Abouelela’s gold came in the 400m individual medley (IM), as he competed in the oldest age category for 16 to 18-year-olds, he also claimed silver in the 200m IM.
He completed his medal set with bronze in the 4x100m medley relay as he swam the freestyle leg with his brother Youssef Abouelela, who is also at that academy, swimming the backstroke leg.
The majority of the medals came in the 14 to 15 age group with a total of 12.
Hamza Shalan claimed no less than four bronzes from the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events and the 400m IM.
In the freestyle events Ahmad Diab won silver in the 50m sprint and bronze in the longer 400m race.
There were also two medals for Abdalla Elgamry as he took bronze in both the 50m and 100m backstroke finals.
In the youngest age group for 12 to 13-year-olds the individual medals were won by Ziad Morsy as he took bronze in the 50m and 100m butterfly events.
Morsy added a third bronze to his collection as he swam the final freestyle leg of the 4x100m medley relay – the team also included Aspire student-athletes Marwan Hassan (backstroke) and Saad Al Sulaiti(butterfly).
Shalan, Diab and Elgamry were joined by Mohamed Ismail in the relay events as the quartet won silver medals in the 4x100m and 4x200 freestyle relays as we well as the 4x100 medley event.