Egypt and Tunisia led the medal count at the 2011 African Championships this weekend. Egypt and Tunis tied in total medals with 17 each to pace the field as Egypt dominated in the team events winning 4 of the 6 events. South Africa was a distant 3rd in the medal standings with one silver and two bronze medals. A total of 122 fencers from 16 African countries participated in the competition.
Azza Besbes (TUN) continued her bid to the 2012 Olympics with her victory in the Women’s Individual Sabre event. The points earned place Besbes 6th in the Adjusted Olympic Rankings (AOR). The top 12 receive automatic bids to the Olympic Games.
In men’s epee, none of the African fencers made the top-12 in the AOR, but the top 2 fencers from each Olympic zone (Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe) receive bids. Right now those regional bids would go to Alexadre Bouzaid (SEN) and Ayman Alaa El Din Fayz (EGY).
The team events leave the winner of each team event as the regional leader to gain entry in the 2012 Olympics, as long as they maintain enough points to be in the top-16 as of March 31, 2012. If no team from the zone is in the top-16 at that date, or if the country does not elect to send their team, then the vacated spot would go to the next team in the AOR regardless of zone.
The next event for all weapons will be the 2011 World Championships.
Summary of Results:
Medal Summary:
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total Medals | |
| Egypt | 6 | 4 | 7 | 17 |
| Tunis | 5 | 7 | 5 | 17 |
| South Africa | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Senegal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Algeria | 2 | 2 |
Team Events:
Women’s Team Epee: TUN, RSA, EGY
Women’s Team Foil: EGY, TUN, ALG
Women’s Team Sabre: TUN, EGY, RSA
Men’s Team Epee: EGY, TUN, RSA
Men’s Team Foil: EGY, TUN, RSA
Men’s Team Sabre: EGY, TUN, SEN
Individual Events:
Women’s Epee:
1. Sarra Besbes (TUN)
2. Mona Abdel Aziz (EGY)
3T. Maya Mansouri (TUN)
3T. Ines Boubakri (TUN)
Women’s Foil:
1. Ines Boubakri (TUN)
2. Iman Shaban (EGY)
3T. Anissa Khelfaoui (ALG)
3T. Shaimaa El Gammal (EGY)
Women’s Sabre:
1. Azza Besbes (TUN)
2. Amira Ben Chaabane (TUN)
3T. Salma Zien (EGY)
3T. Hela Besbes (TUN)
Men’s Epee:
1. Alexandre Bouzaid (SEN)
2. Ayman Alaa El Din Fayz (EGY)
3T. Ahmed El Saghir (EGY)
3T. Ayoub Mohamed Ferjani (TUN)
Men’s Foil:
1. Alaa El Din El Sayed (EGY)
2. Mohamed Smandi (TUN)
3T. Tarek Fouad (EGY)
3T. Karim Kamoun (TUN)
Men’s Sabre:
1. Mahmoud Samir (EGY)
2. Hichem Smandi (TUN)
3T. Tamim Ghazi (EGY)
3T. Mannad Ghazy (EGY)
Results available via the FIE web site at http://www.fie.ch/
