Egypt continue to dominate

Egypt maintained their supremacy in the medals tally after eight days of competition at the 10th Pan Arab Games late last night.

A majority of the medals for the Egyptians came in the swimming as the curtains came down on the competition late on Friday night.

They now have 56 gold medals, 27 silver and 34 bronze for a total of 117 medals. Hosts Algeria's strong showing continued in second place as they added another seven gold medals to their overnight tally to take their total to 40 golds.

They have another 48 silver and 51 bronze for a total of 139.

Tunisia continues in third spot with 31 golds, an addition of four to their overnight tally of 27 to take their total to 93 medals.

Syria and Saudi Arabia continue in the fourth and fifth spots with 18 and 10 golds, respectively.

The UAE, which added another two bronze medals on Friday, stayed put in 10th overall with two gold, three silver and six bronze.

In table tennis yesterday, the UAE's lone challenge wilted away when Rashed Abdul Hameed was knocked out in the second round of the men's individual contest.

Played at the Rouiba indoor sports hall some 40kms from the capital, Abdul Hameed went down 4-1 against Iraq's Jamal Jalal.

The UAE player had received a bye for the first round, earning an automatic entry in the second round against the Iraqi.

Earlier in the first round, Jalal had shown perfect defence against his Bahraini opponent to win 4-1 and advance to a meeting against Abdul Hameed.

In the second round, Jalal did just enough to keep Abdul Hameed's attacking game at bay by continuously attacking his backhand. The UAE player made all the mistakes and Jalal knew he had things worked out in his favour.

"It's my fault," admitted Abdul Hameed after losing 8-11, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11 and 11-13.

"I think Abdul Hameed did not move enough and put the pressure on the Iraqi," noted the UAE's coach Ferenc Timar.

"Maybe we needed to have a team here, so that they could have got some more experience. But I am happy for Rasheed as he is still young and he's got an opportunity to see where he stands in the Arab region," Timar stated.

The UAE player did well to take the third set 11-7 to cause a bit of a strain on his Iraqi opponent. But Jalal kept his cool when it mattered most as he took the next set 11-9 to take the upperhand.

In the fifth set, Abdul Hameed put up a great display of attacking table tennis to draw level at 6-6 after trailing 2-6.

But Jalal pulled clear at set and game point 10-8. The UAE player was not giving up so easily as he tied the set at 10-all and then again at 11-11.But a looped return gave Jalal enough width to send a cross table smash and take the set and match.