15 Jul 2019

Winner of men’s singles class 5 at the recent 2019 African Para Championships when, in a dramatic final he beat Nigeria’s Isa Ogunkunle to become the first table tennis player from the continent to qualify for five consecutive Paralympic Games, Egypt’s Mohamed Sameh Eid Saleh has been nominated by the International Paralympic Committee for the June 2019 Allianz Athlete of the Month.

He is named alongside Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim (archery), Germany’s Johannes Floors (athletics), Brazil’s Raimundo Mendes (blind football) and Spain’s Antoni Ponce (swimming).

by Olalekan Okusan, ITTF Africa Press Officer

Born in Alexandria, 41 years old, a class 4 athlete; undoubtedly the greatest achievement for Mohamed Sameh Eid Saleh is the bronze medal secured at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Success in London but it is in his own continent that he has enjoyed the greatest success. Victory on home soil in June meant that commencing in 2007, he collected his sixth consecutive men’s singles African Para Championships gold medal; in fact the list of wins could be considered nine in total. Beginning in 1999, repeating the success in 2003 and 2005 he struck gold at the tournament’s forerunner, the African and Middle East Championships.

Voting concludes on Friday 12th July at 12.00 (Central European Summer Time).

First awarded in June 2010, there have been two previous Allianz table tennis winners; in November 2016 Chile’s Matias Pino Lorca emerged the victor, one month later Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger secured the award.

Paralympics Para Table Tennis Mohamed Sameh Eid Saleh