Yasmina Issa, thr Egyptian Para Badminton national team player, expressed her happiness at achieving a historic gold medal in Egypt Para Badminton Championship held in Egypt from January 23rd to 28th 2024, which is one of the qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
Yasmina Issa praised the idea of organizing a global championship in Egypt for the first time in the history of the sport.
Yasmina expressed, “I am happy that the championship was hosted in Egypt and that a considerable number of spectators attended to support us during the event. I felt proud of being an Egyptian, and the participants expressed their admiration after visiting Giza Pyramids.”
Issa concluded,” The Egyptian team participated for the first time with a large number of Para athletes in the championship, which helped in providing an opportunity for Egyptian players to compete with international players and gain more experience.
Yasmina won the gold medal after defeating Ukrainian player Nina Kozolova with a score of 2-0 in the SH6 singles category.
The game scores were as follows: “21-11, 21-14” in a match that lasted no more than 20 minutes. Yasmina, representing the Egyptian national team, secured Egypt’s only gold medal in the championship after winning 7 bronze medals, 4 of which were in the singles category by Rahma Ahmed, Zeinab El-Sayed, Shahenda Ibrahim, and Omar Mahmoud.
In addition, there were 3 bronze medals in the doubles category, with the pair Omar Mahmoud and Seif El-Din Amr winning bronze in the men’s doubles, and the pair Rahma Ahmed and Shahenda Ibrahim winning bronze in the women’s doubles. Omar Mahmoud and Zeinab El-Sayed also won bronze in the mixed doubles.
The championship featured the participation of 140 players from 25 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Portugal, Turkey, Uganda, Cameroon, Taiwan, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Libya, Nepal, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, and the host country, Egypt.
It is worth mentioning that the Egyptian Paralympic Committee, under the leadership of Dr. Hossam El-Din Mostafa, pays great attention to disabled sports through coordination and cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and sports federations that prioritize Paralympic activities.
The Egyptian Paralympic Committee aims to qualify the largest number of players in various sports to participate in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and achieve more accomplishments for Egyptian sports.
