Egypt’s Salma Aly Wins African Para-taekwondo Championship's Silver

By Maydaa Abo El-Nadar

HURGHADA, Feb.24 (SEE) - Egyptian Para-taekwondo champion Salma Aly won the fourth edition of the African Para-taekwondo Championship that took place in Hurghada, Egypt, whose national team participated with 14 players (11 males and three females).

Aly lost the final match to

Turkey’s Gamzih Gordal by a score of 20-9. She defeated Serbia’s Mariga Mekiv

in the semifinals 31-28.  Previously, she

won over her compatriot Amal Khalaf and USA’s Biriana Salinro by 21-0 and 6-4,

respectively.

Worth noting is that the Egyptian

Para-taekwondo national team was formed several months ago.

Although it was an African championship,

European, Asian, and American countries competed there.

Africa was represented by Morocco, Senegal, Niger, Cameron, Tunisia, Rwanda, the Central Africa Republic, Congo, and Egypt. The USA and Brazil represented North and South America. On the other side, Jordan, Japan, UAE, and Kazakhstan are representing Asia.

The European teams were Denmark, France, Spain, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, and Finland.

For the first time, the Para-taekwondo is going to be included at the Tokyo’s Paralympics Games 2020. Thus, the African Tournament, where around 30 countries took part, was important for the players’ qualification.