Egypt, Morocco and South Africa are joining the trip to Beijing

Calvin Hartley (RSA)   The African Championships in Cairo, Egypt for the qualification to Beijing Olympics saw a new record of 11 participating countries. The competition gave excellent results and the participants fought for the 4 remaining places to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games.   In the men’s competition three men obtained the minimum qualification score (MSQ) and several others got close. The second place went to Mohamed Amr Ghanem from Egypt. However, he athlete did not obtain the MQS and will be confronted to a though national competition in order to obtain the actual place to go to Beijing. His teammate Moehie Maged did obtain the MQS but lost in the quarter-finals. Third and first standby is Cliff Babeth from Mauritius. The competition was won by South Africain Calvin Hartley.   In the women’s competition the dominant South Africans just managed to secure one place and realized the toughness of the competition. The match-play turned the results of the qualification round upside down. The winner -and this is a great success for Morocco- is Fatine Ouadoudi who finished only 6th in the qualification round. The silver medallist from Egypt, Amira Mansour, obtained the second place for Egypt but is in the same position as her colleague. She did not yet obtain the MQS, whereas the 4th placed Soha Abedel Al from Egypt did. Mauritius did not have much luck since they placed also in the women category an athlete in third place which only gives a standby place.   There are now 11 places left in each gender and competition which will be though in the coming months:   Ø     3 places nominated by the IOC-ANOC-FITA Tripartite Commission Ø     3 places at the European Championships and CQT (Continental Qualification Tournament) mid May in Vittel, France Ø     5 places at the final Qualification tournament in June in Boé, France   We now have 37 countries that have obtained places and it looks like we will have more than 50 countries in total qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing. This shows the progress of our sport worldwide.   Ø     All results at www.faaarchery2008.com Ø     Photos   FITA Communication