Day 3: Algeria's bronze medal hard act to follow

2008-08-11

Maghreb athletes had a largely disappointing Monday in Beijing, although Algeria's Driess Chaouki, Tunisia's Alaa Shili and Morocco's Driss Mousaid all moved ahead in their competitions.

Sarah Touahri in Rabat, Nazim Fethi in Algiers and Mona Yahia in Tunis contributed to this report – 11/08/08

[Mawassi Lahcen] Moroccan boxer Driss Moussaid (centre) and his coaches celebrate the athlete's victory over Australia's Todd Kidd at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijin.

The third day of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was marked by a number of losses for Maghreb athletes. In Judo, the Algerians were unable to build upon their compatriot Soraya Haddad's bronze medal win on Sunday (August 10th).

Algerian Judoka Lila Latrous lost to China's Xu Yan in the preliminaries for the -57kg category and fared no better in the second heat, where she lost to Finland's Nina Koivumaki.

Tunisian judoka Nesria Jelassi finishing her participation in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in 9th place after losing a rematch against Hungary's Baczko Bernadett in -57kg category.

Jelassi, who was exempted from the first round competitions, managed to defeat Cuba's Yurisleydis Lupety by ippon. To the Tunisians' dismay, however, Jelassi lost in the third round to Australia's Maria Beckley, who won bronze by ippon in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic Games.

In men's judo, Amar Meridja lost to the Belorussian Konstantin Semenov in the -72kg category.

Algeria's women's volleyball team suffered its second defeat, this time a 3-0 loss to Serbia.

In what marked the end of her participation at the Games, Tunisian fencer Innes Boubakri lost to Canada's Jujie Luan in the women's individual foil competition with a score of 9-13. Algeria's Anissa Khelfaoui lost to the United States' Hanna Thompson.

Algeria's best outcome of the day was Driess Chaouki's qualification to the semi-finals in the men's single scull. Boxing formed the single largest group of Maghreb competitors on Monday, with a number of brutal defeats, but several victories as well.

In the -60kg category, Tunisian boxer Saifeddine Nejmaoui lost 10-2 to Russia's Alexey Tishchenko in the 16th round and Alaa Shili qualified to the quarter-finals in the -57kg category after defeating Germany's Wilhelm Gratschow 14-5, also in the 16th round.

Shili will play Mexico's Arturo Reyes in the quarter-finals on Friday (August 15th).

In the morning, Moroccan boxer Mehdi Ouatine said goodbye to the world's Olympians after a 10-1 loss to Mongolia's Enkhzorig Zorigtbaatar in the -57kg category.

Morocco's Taher Tamsamani, bronze medalist at the 200 games in Sydney, was also eliminated in the morning in a preliminary -70kg match against Italy's Valentino Domenico.

Of Morocco's ten boxers at the Olympic Games, five have already begun to compete. By defeating Australia's Todd Kidd 22-12, Driss Mousaid has been the only Moroccan boxer so far to move beyond the first round. On Thursday, he faces Cuba's Iglesias Sotolongo Roniel.

The greatest disappointment of the day was the loss of Algeria's boxing heavyweight medal hopeful Hamza Kramou to Cuba's Yordanis Ugas.