Egypt's gold medal hopeful Aya Medany said Monday that she will do her best to win the women's modern pentathlon at the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
"I will do my best to win the game, but we have five events in one day so I hope I could be fine for all the events," Medany said when attending a good-luck reception held by Chinese Embassy to Egypt on Monday evening.
She said she will fly to South Korea this month for some accommodating training before heading for Beijing for the Games.
On her biggest rival in Beijing, Medany said all the competitors are best athletes including Athens Games' gold medalist Zsuzsanna Voros from Hungary.
Egypt has never claimed a medal in modern pentathlon, but all Egyptian media began turning their eyes on Medany after she clinched championship titles in 2007 Pentathlon World Cup, 2007 World Championships, and in recent Junior World Championships in Cairo.
"We do cross our fingers for her," said Ahmad Nasser, president of Egyptian Federation of Modern Pentathlon.
"But we cannot guarantee the winning because it's a very fierce competition and we are working on it," he said, adding "we have hope definitely."
Three Egyptian athletes in the modern pentathlon have won the qualification for the Beijing Olympics. "I hope we can do something the best in the Olympics," Nasser said.
Mounir Sabet, president of Egypt's Olympic Committee, said Egypt will dispatch a 177-member Olympic delegation, including 100 athletes and 77 coaches and officials, for the August event.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)