[Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt reacts after winning her match against Iryna Zaretska of Azerbaijan. (Image: Reuters / Ivan Alvarado)]
Tokyo: Feryal Abdelaziz claimed Gold after beating Irina Zaretska of Azerbaijan 2-0 in the final for the Women’s Karate Kumite +61 kilogram competition at Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Egyptian woman to win the title.
The athlete’s achievement at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena Saturday secures Egypt’s first Gold medal in 17 years. Karam Gaber was the last Egyptian athlete to win the Gold for the country in the 2004 Athens Games.
Feryal’s win came a day after Egypt’s Giana Farouk made history by winning the delegation’s first-ever medal in Karate by claiming Bronze in the Women’s Kumite 61kg event.
Egypt has so far won six medals at Tokyo Olympics, surpassing its own record for the number of medals won in a single competition.
The Egyptian delegation had previously won five medals at each of the following competitions: the Olympics in Berlin 1936, London 1948, and Athens 2004 respectively.
As for other Muslim athletes in Olympics, Netherlands' Sifan Hassan became the first athlete to medal in all three track events at one Olympics - the 1,500, the 5,000 and the 10,000 meters.
Sifan Hassan won the women's 10,000 metres final after her gold in 5,000 metres a few days back and Norway's Jakob Ingbrigtsen won the men's 1500 metres event.
In boxing, Turkey won a gold through Busenaz Surmeneli (women's welterweight) and silver through Buse Naz Cakiroglu (women's flyweight), who lost to Bulgarian Zhelyazkova Krasteva in the final. Britain's Galal Yafai won men's flyweight boxing title while Brazil's Herbert Sousa won men's middleweight.
Saturday also marked historic and dramatic day for Arab athletes competing at Tokyo Olympics after five medals were won across four different sports.
It was late heartbreak for Saudi Arabia’s Tarek Hamdi in the final of the Men’s Karate Kumite +75kg, as he was disqualified during his bout with Sajag Ganzjadeh of Iran, who departed the mat at Nippon Budokan arena on a stretcher.
The Saudi athlete was left with a Silver medal despite going agonizingly close to a Gold, but it capped a dramatic day for Hamdi after he had beaten Japan's Ryutaro Araga 2-0 in a stunning Semi-Final win.
Elsewhere, a remarkable day for Arab sport was rounded off with Bahrain’s Kalkidan Gezahegne beating out heavily-fancied, world-record holder Letesenbet Gidey to a silver medal place in the women’s 10,000m race — which was won by star of the Tokyo Games Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.
And finally, Qatar’s men’s Beach Volleyball duo made their first appearance on the Olympic podium when they sealed a bronze medal by beating their Latvian opponents 2-0.
(With inputs from "Arab News" and "Middle East Eye".)
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