Sara Samir wins Egypt’s first Rio2016 medal in weightlifting

Egypt’s weightlifter Sara Samir became the first female in the country’s history to win an Olympic medal after clinching bronze at the Rio de Janeiro Games on Wednesday.

The 18-year-old totaled 255kg after six successful attempts in snatch and clean and jerk in the 69kg event to give Egypt its first Rio medal, finishing third behind gold medalist Yanmei Xiang of China (261kg) and silver medalist Zhazira Zhapparkul of Kazakhstan (259kg).

Samir becomes the first female to officially win an Olympic medal since Egypt first participated in the games at the 1912 edition in Swedish capital Stockholm.

She also handed Egypt its first weightlifting Olympic medal since the country won two gold and one silver at the 1948 Games in London.

“This is such a big honour. All Egypt was waiting for one or two medals from our team,” Samir said, according to Reuters.

Two weightlifters are also likely to be given Olympic medals after their challengers at the 2012 London Games were suspended in June and July over doping charges.

Abeer Abdelrahman is expected to be granted the silver medal in the 75g event and Tarek Yehia is likely to be handed bronze in the 85 kg event.

“But I was the first to be on the podium,” she smiled. “I hope I can help to re-establish Egypt as a successful weightlifting nation.”

In 2014, Samir was also the first Egyptian female to win an Olympic medal on the youth level after clinching gold at the Nanjing Games in China.

She also won six gold medals in the 2014 African Youth Championship and African Junior Championship in Tunisia in the same year.

Source: Ahram Online