Tunisia Hosts the 6th African Rowing Championships

Medal Ceremony at the 6th African Rowing Championships

Tunisia continues to grow as a hub for African rowing as the Lake of Tunis again played host to an international rowing event, this time the sixth African Rowing Championships.

With Tunis city skyscrapers as a backdrop, Egypt headed the list of medal winners taking gold in six of the twelve events. This included Mohamed Ahmed who finished first in the men’s single holding off 2003 World Rowing junior medallist Sean Irwin of South Africa and Olympian Mohamed Aich of Algeria.

BearingPoint Rowing World Cup medallist Ibtissem Trimech of Tunisia continued on her winning ways by finishing ahead of South Africa’s Cath Shaw and Hafida Chaouch of Algeria.

The junior men’s single was won by Egypt’s Magdy Abdel Hamid with Kieron Wright of South Africa finishing second and Tunisia’s Zied Chiha in third. Hamid and Chiha last raced each other at the World Rowing Junior Championships in August where Chiha finished ahead of Hamid.

Tunisian lightweight single sculler Ibtissem Trimech

The nine participant countries included Cameroon for the first time. Cameroon capped off their participation with Samuel Moukoumboulan producing another first by winning a medal for his country, a bronze in the lightweight men’s single. Moukoumboulan got a taste for international rowing in September when he competed at the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan. This placed Cameroon sixth overall in the medals table.

Tunis last hosted an international rowing event in 2004 with the Olympic qualification regatta for Africa. The venue has also hosted the Arab Rowing Championships (2000) and the Mediterranean Games (2001).

?This Championship is part of our federation’s focused objectives for the further development of rowing in Tunisia which is potentially able to recruit youth and to exploit the venue,? said President of the Tunisia Rowing & Canoeing Federation, Mr. Othman Ben.

Results by events:

1- JM1x – 1st EGY (7.33:88) 2nd RSA (7.40:84) 3rd TUN (7.49:00)
2- LM2x – 1st ALG (6.52:84) 2nd EGY (7.02:38) 3rd TUN (7.05:06)
3- LW1x – 1st TUN (8.26:66) 2nd RSA (8.39:10) 3rd ALG (8.49:14)
4- JW2x – 1st EGY (8.03:87) 2nd TUN (8.05:42) 3rd ZIM (8.10:77)
5- LM1x – 1st TUN (7.45:25) 2nd ALG (7.49:14) 3rd CMR (8.03:14)
6- LW2x – 1st RSA (7.42:15) 2nd TUN (7.59:76) 3rd EGY (8.07:85)
7- M1x – 1st EGY (7.18:28) 2nd RSA (7.26:57) 3rd ALG (7.30:85)
8- JM2x – 1st EGY (6.54:79) 2nd TUN (7.01:94) 3rd ALG (7.19:90)
9- W1x – 1st TUN (8.09:46) 2nd ALG (8.28:44) 3rd RSA (8.34:83)
10- M2x – 1st EGY (6.43:06) 2nd RSA (6.53:88) 3rd ALG (7.03:68)
11- JW1x – 1st EGY (8.37:38) 2nd TUN (8.39:64) 3rd ZIM (8.47:87)
12- W2x – 1st RSA (7.44:55) 2nd ALG (7.47:67) 3rd EGY (7.48:94)
 
Results by country:

1st Egypt         (6 gold – 1 silver – 2 bronze)
2nd Tunisia        (3 gold – 4 silver – 2 bronze)
3rd South Africa (2 gold – 4 silver – 1 bronze)
4th Algeria         (1 gold – 3 silver – 4 bronze)
5th Zimbabwe     (2 bronze)
6th Cameroon     (1 bronze)