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RIO DE JANEIRO (SW): Teenager Sara Ahmed earned Egypt its first medal of Rio 2016 to become the first Egyptian woman to win a medal during the Olympics.
At just 18, Ahmed lifted a combined weight of 255kg to finish third behind gold medalist Xiang Yanmei of China and silver medallist Zhazira Zhapparkul of Kazakhstan. Prior to Ahmed and Abdelrahman’s medals, Egypt’s last weighting medal had come in 1948. The country used to be a powerhouse in weightlifting with its men winning a number of medals at the 1936 and 1948 Games.
Another notable feature player of the day was Kuwaiti Fehaid Aldeehani who defeated Italy’s Marco Innocenti in the men’s double trap match on Wednesday. He became the first member of the Independent Olympic Athletes team to win gold in Olympic history.
Kuwait has been banned from international competition by the International Olympic Committee since October for its government legislation allowing interference in national sport federations. A Swiss court denied Kuwait’s appeal of the ban before the Games. Thus, Aldeehani was competing under the IOC flag, which flew above his gold medal position on the podium after Wednesday’s event. The Olympic anthem, rather than the Kuwaiti national anthem, was played during the medal ceremony.
At the end of the fifth day, the US stands on top of the medal list with a total of 32 medals that include 11 gold, followed by China with a total of 23 medals including 10 gold while Japan stands third with a total of 18 medals including 6 gold.
ENDS
