Hedaya Malak Wins Egypt’s Third Medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics

Hedaya Malak (also known as Hedaya Wahba) defeated Belgium’s Raheleh Asemani in the bronze-medal event of the women’s 57kg Taekwondo event, winning Egypt’s third medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Malak, who had earlier defeated the Taekwondo world champion and reached the semi-finals, missed out on the gold and silver medal events after losing to Spain’s Eva Calvo Gómez in a very close contest. Last year, Malak defeated Gómez at the 2015 World Taekwondo Grand Prix competition in the finals.

The 23-year-old Egyptian taekwondo practitioner, who is ranked the third worldwide, had been expected to score a medal for Egypt during the Olympics.

The victory marks the first time an Egyptian woman has won a medal in taekwondo at the Olympic Games.

Egypt’s other medals were won by Sara Ahmed and Mohamed Ihab in weightlifting.

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