Algeria break Egypt’s winning streak with doubles’ gold medal

The winning streak of Egypt in the table tennis event of the 13th African Games was broken on Sunday, March 10, as Algeria claimed the men’s doubles gold medal at the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana.

Egypt has claimed six of the seven titles at stake in the table tennis event but Algeria’s duo of Mehdi Bouloussa and Stephane Ouaiche came to the party in the final against Egyptian duo of Khalid Assar and Mohamed Shouman being the last match of the table tennis event of the games.

It was the Egyptians that took a lead after winning the first match at 11- 9 but the Algerians fought back to win the second and third games at 11-6, 11-9. But the Egyptians were not ready to let go as they won the fought game at 11-7 to put the match at 2-2.

The fifth and final game ended 11-7 in favour of the Algerians who claimed their first gold medal of the table tennis event to become the second best team in Ghana.

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However, Nigeria and Tunisia settled for bronze medals in the doubles event but again the Egyptians claimed the overall medals with six gold medals, while Algeria won one gold while Nigeria’s duo of Taiwo Mati and Matthew Kutti settled for bronze in the men’s doubles.

For Bouloussa, winning the gold medal in the final match of the competition was very important. “I think this is the most important match for us being the last match of the competition and winning the gold medal for Algeria was very significant. I am so happy and excited that we were able to do it on the final day,” the African Games debutant said.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian twins – Mariam and Marwa Alhodaby emerged as the women’s doubles champions after beating their Tunsian counterparts – Fadwa Garci and Abir Haj Salah 3-1 in the final held at the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana.

Having finished third at the 2022 African Championships as doubles partners, the Alhodaby twins claimed their first senior title as doubles partners with a flawless passage to the final.

Marwa described the victory as amazing, “We have been playing doubles events together from cadet, junior and U-21 levels with several medals but this one is special, particularly winning at such a big stage as the African Games,” she said.