Day 14: Track events, taekwondo, offer last chance for Maghreb medals

22/08/2008

Morocco's hopes for a taekwondo medal are pinned to only one remaining athlete. Tunisia's last athlete in the martial art will compete on Saturday.

Mawassi Lahcen in Casablanca and Mona Yahia in Tunis contributed to this report – 22/08/08

[Mawassi Lahcen] Morocco's Mouna Benabderrassoul (blue) performed well against Japan's Yoriko Okamoto (red) on Friday, but lost to France's Patience Epangue Gwladys after disregarding warnings from the referee.

In Women's taekwondo on Friday, Morocco's Mouna Benabderrassoul performed well against Japan's Yoriko Okamoto in the -67kg category. Benabderrassoul had the upper hand in the game, thanks to her strong and rapid kicks and she managed to score three points against her opponent's zero. Alhough the referee wrote off one of her points for getting two successive warnings, she still managed to win and qualify to the next round.

A series of mistakes in the next round, however, prevented Benabderrassoul from qualifying in the quarter finals. The Moroccan played France's Patience Epangue Gwladys scoring two points to her French opponent's one. However Benabderrassoul was penalised for repeatedly leaving the ring. Disregarding the warnings of the referee caused her to lose some of the precious points she had earned.

According to the rules of the sport, a player loses half a point for each violation. Although the match ended in a draw, the referee declared the French player the winner.

Now that Mona Benabderrassoul has been disqualified, as was Ghazlan Al Tawadli before her, Morocco’s chances in taekwondo have dropped from three to one.

Morocco still hopes Abdelkader Zrouri, captain of the national Moroccan taekwondo team will win them a medal. He competes on Saturday in the -80kg category.

Zrouri, who placed fifth in the Athens Olympics in 2004, said, "In Athens, I was unable to win because of an injury. Today in Beijing, I am strongly determined to win and raise my homeland flag up high." Although Zrouri is part of Morocco's national taekwondo team, he trains under a private coach in Belgium.

Zrouri told Magharebia that he intends to quit after the Beijing Games and establish an academy for martial arts and self-defense in Morocco.

Tunisian participation in the Olympics will also conclude with the taekwondo contests on Saturday, when Khaoula Ben Hamza plays Mexican Maria Del Rosario Estinoza in the -67kg contest.

In athletics competitions on Friday (August 22nd), Tunisia's Hatem Ghoula came in 33rd in the men's 50km walk, clocking 4:03:47. He finished 26:38 minutes behind Italian winner Alex Schwarzer, who broke the Olympic record set 10 years ago with a time of 3:37.09.

Ghoula, holder of the bronze medal in the recent 20km world championship in Osaka, said that he'd hoped to achieve better results in Beijing.

Hatim noted that all signs indicated that his participation would be positive. His preparations were excellent, he said, but he was not at his best, which left him feeling very sad. He added that he planned to turn over a new leaf, and will begin preparations for the coming championship in Berlin.

On Saturday, Moroccan runners Siham Hilali and Btissam Lakhouad will participate in the women's 1500m final. Both women came in third in their respective heats during Thursday's semi-finals.

Algeria's Nabil Madi and Nadjim Manseur will also run Saturday (August 23rd) in the men's 800m final.