Day 2: Algeria makes history with judo medal, Tunisian swim star disappoints

2008-08-11

Algeria scored a sports landmark on the second day of the Olympic Games, when Soraya Haddad became the first-ever African woman to win an Olympic judo medal, while a Tunisian swimming sensation failed to qualify.

Mawassi Lahcen in Casablanca, Nazim Fethi in Algiers and Mona Yahia in Tunis contributed to this report – 11/08/08

[Getty Images] Algerian Soraya Haddad (left) and Sholpan Kaliyeva of Kazakhstan compete in the women's -52kg judo event of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 10th.

Algerian female judoka Soraya Haddad defeated Sholpan Kaliyeva of Kazakhstan to grab the bronze medal in the 52kg category at the Beijing Olympic Games on Sunday (August 10th) and offer Algeria its first medal. Haddad was defeated in the semis by defending champion Xian Dongmei, who went on to win the gold.

Morocco's Rachid Rguig lost in the 66-kg judo competition, to France's Benjamin Darbelet, who would go on to win the silver medal in that category.

Moroccan Driss Moussaid qualified on Sunday for the second round of the 64kg boxing tournament, beating Australian Todd Kidd on points. In the same weight class, Tunisian Hamza Hassanine of Tunisia lost to Morteza Sepahvandi of Iran.

In the 69-kg category, Moroccan boxer Mehdi Khalsi was eliminated in the first round after losing to Uzbekistan's Dilshod Mahmudov.

In the tennis events, Tunisia's Salima Sfar was eliminated by Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the first round, losing the first set 6-4 and the second 6-1.

Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli also failed to qualify, finishing eighth and last in Heat 6 of the 200m men's freestyle. In the 400m freestyle final he came in fifth with a time of 3:43.45. Mellouli will take part in the 1500m preliminaries on Friday.

In a brutal race due to excessive heat, cyclist Rafaa Chtioui of Tunisia finished 87th in road cycling, crossing the finish line 39 minutes and 15 seconds after the race winner, with a final time of 7:03:04 in the 245km competition.

The gold medal was won by Spain's Samuel Sanchez with a time of 6:23:49, ahead of Italy's Davide Rebellin, who won the silver medal with the same time, and Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara who won the bronze medal with the same time. Due to the heat, only 90 riders out of the 145-man peloton finished the race.

In weightlifting, Tunisia's Khalil El Maaoui withdrew Sunday from the 56-kg category. El Maaoui failed in three attempts at 142kg in the clean and jerk competition, after successfully putting up 126kg.

Moroccan swimmer Sara Elbekri won first place Sunday evening in Heat 3 of the women's 100m breaststroke. Elbekri finished the race with a time of 1:08.66; not far off the world record time of 1:05.09 set by Australia's Leisel Jones in 2006. Nevertheless, her time was only good enough for 19th place in the overall rankings, eliminating her from semi-final competition.

Elbekri will compete in the 200m breaststroke event on Wednesday.

In addition, Moroccan fencer Aissam Rami was eliminated yesterday in men's individual epee round of 64 after failing to win against Poland's Tomasz Motyka.