This year’s African Championships got off to an exciting start on Friday evening, where the South African women upset the long-running champions from Egypt to earn the continent’s sole team berth for world championships while 16-year-old Kaylia Nemour, who was very recently (and finally!) released by the French federation in order to represent Algeria, put on a show-stopping display to win the all-around title and snag the first of four individual worlds spots. In the men’s competition on Saturday, the men from Egypt once again claimed gold.
It’s been nearly two decades since South Africa last stood atop the podium at African Championships, with the program seeing tons of individual successes in recent years, but they’ve typically come up short against the Egyptians, who won the gold by 3.5 points to qualify a full team to worlds in 2022. But competing at home in Pretoria, the South Africans put on an incredible performance, led by last year’s continental champion and 2020 Olympian Caitlin Rooskrantz, who earned a 50.632 to win silver in the all-around, while her teammate and fellow Olympian Naveen Daries was just off the podium in fourth with a 49.533.
Egypt also had some strong individual performances here, including from Jana Abdelsalam, who won bronze in the all-around for the second year in a row, and Sandra Elsadek, who just wrapped up her NCAA career following four standout years at Ball State before transferring to Georgia for a fifth year, where she contributed regularly on vault and floor. The team lacked some of the experience we’re used to seeing, with both Elsadek and Nada Awad new to international competition, while veterans like Nancy Taman and Jana Mahmoud were limited to a couple of events apiece. Overall, their strength was comparable to last year’s, but with a few key routines missing here and there, they were unable to hold fight off the South Africans, who looked better than ever.
It was also a “better than ever” year for Algeria, led by newcomer Nemour, who was able to single-handedly add close to 10 points more than any other gymnasts in the country’s roster. Last year, the team notched a 30.733 on bars, with an 11.0 the highest, but this year they made it up to 34.765, thanks in very large part to Nemour’s 15.066. The routine earned a 6.9 D score, down two tenths from the intended 7.1 with Nemour not getting credit for the Derwael-Fenton, but it was stunning from start to finish, and with hits on vault (12.966), beam (13.533), and floor (12.166), she was easily able to take the all-around title with a 53.731.
Nemour and her teammate Lahna Salem, who finished eighth all-around with a 45.399, earned two of the four individual spots for worlds, while Abdelsalam and Elsadek of Egypt picked up the other two.
The Egyptian men had absolutely no problem repeating as champions here, winning the team gold with a 241.028, more than 10 points ahead of Algeria in the silver medal position, while Morocco took the bronze.
2020 Olympian Omar Mohamed led the team and won the all-around gold with an 82.131, ahead of teammate Mohamed Afify with a 77.030 for silver, while Hillal Metidji of Algeria won the bronze with a 77.030. Only two all-around spots were available for the men in the African continent, which went to Metidji and Hamza Hossaini of Morocco, fourth with a 76.765.
Other nations competing at this year’s African Championships included Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, and Angola.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
