Egyptian gymnast, Yehia Zakaria, won the bronze medal on the parallel apparatus at the World Junior Gymnastics Championships, held in Antalya, Turkey, last week.
Zakaria clinched the medal after achieving 13,700 points, with a slight difference from the first and second places.
He is the first Egyptian to win the bronze medal in the World Junior Gymnastics Championships.
This is the highest medal to be achieved by Egypt in the competition since its launch.
Seventeen-year-old Zakaria won many medals with the Egyptian national gymnastics team in continental and international competitions.
His most prominent achievements include the gold and silver medals in the Mediterranean Junior Gymnastics Championship, three gold medals in the African Junior Artistic Gymnastics Championship, and the bronze of the Junior Gymnastics World Cup.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Ashraf Sobhi, congratulated the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Gymnastics Federation and the national team on Zakaria’s victory.
Egyptian sports, he said, make achievements at all levels.
The minister cited the results achieved by Egyptian athletes in international competitions.
“These distinguished results reflect the development of and stability in our country’s sports system,” the minister said.
He attributed this development and this stability to support from Egypt’s political leadership.
Egypt’s men’s junior artistic gymnastics team also achieved ninth place in the World Gymnastics Championship, a new achievement for Egyptian gymnastics.
This is the best position achieved by the national gymnastics team in world championships.
President of Egyptian and African gymnastics federations, Ehab Ameen, praised Zakaria’s success in winning Egypt’s first medal in the World Junior Championships.
“This is a great achievement,” he said.
Ameen attributed the elevated performance of the Egyptian men’s and women’s national team in artistic gymnastics at the World Championships in Turkey to the great efforts made in the past period by the players, the technical staff and the Gymnastics Federation.
All branches of gymnastics, he said, are witnessing a huge boom in Egypt.
He added that this boom was evident during the participation of Egyptian teams in the international competitions that were held this year.
“These competitions will help us to qualify for participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics,” Ameen said.
He thanked Minister Sobhy for his continuous support of the game and national gymnastics teams.
This support, he said, contributed to achieving distinguished results at the international and continental levels.
The Egyptian Gymnastics Federation was established in 1936. Egypt’s first international participation was in the 12th championship in Switzerland in 1950. It succeeded in coming in sixth place.
The federation has faced many challenges since its founding. It was suspended for a long time.
Ameen succeeded, however, in restoring the splendour of the game, as parents raced against each other to enlist their children in gymnastics teams and competitions.
Egypt hosted the Gymnastics World Cup in 2021.
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