(Photo from Egyptian Paralympic Committee)
The Egyptian Paralympic weightlifting team returned to Cairo victorious on 12 April with four new world records, 12 medals and second place overall ranking from the 2014 IPC Power lifting World Championships. The team was received by the Minister of Sports Khalid Abdel Aziz.
The Egyptian team won four gold, six silver, and two bronze medals. Sherif Othman earned the world record in the 54 kg weight class by lifting 202 kg. In the 86 kg weight class and the 61 kg weight class, Randa Mahmoud and Zeinab Oteify set new world records by lifting 143kg and 130 kg, respectively. Zeinab Oteify, who competed in the 50 kg weight class, broke the world record by lifting 97.5 kg.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian team came in first with five gold medals and a total of seven medals.
The 2014 IPC Power lifting World Championship took place in Dubai from 5 till 11 April. This was the sixth version of the event and the second time it was hosted at the United Arab Emirates; the first was in 1998. The world championships were first held in 1994 at Uppsala, Sweden.
Around 850 lifters and team officials attended educational seminars under the name Raising the Bar, a campaign against doping.
“A good lifter is pure,” said Othman, who supported the campaign. “When an athlete competes pure he is a good sport. For me sport is only sport, no ‘I beat you, you beat me.’”
