Dakar 2026: five Africans fought for judo bronze, only Aly Elramly got it
Egypt's under-81kg judoka needed just 71 seconds. Gambia's Jobe, Sierra Leone's Kargbo, Algeria's Berrahoual and Tunisia's Ben Sliman fell one fight short of the podium.
SNA – Multisport · Author profile · · Updated 02/11/2026 22:27 UTC
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Seventy-one seconds was all Aly Elramly needed. The Egyptian beat Cyprus's Vladimiros Charalampous by ippon at the Dakar Expo Center on Monday to take under-81kg bronze. Four other Africans fought for a medal the same day, and none of them won one.
Olympic judo awards two bronzes per weight class, with quarter-final losers routed through repechage. Losing that last fight means fifth place.
Three quick finishes and a golden score
In the same class, Sierra Leone's Shaku Kargbo lost to Bulgaria's Ivan Nikolchev in 1:45. At under 52kg, Gambia's Alima Jobe lasted 46 seconds against Moldova's Alexandra Chiron.
The closest fights came at under 63kg. Algeria's Dounia Berrahoual went the full four minutes before losing on a waza-ari to Indonesia's Sashenka Fatimah. Tunisia's Ranim Ben Sliman took Kyrgyzstan's Aaisha Kyialbekova to golden score and gave up a waza-ari 43 seconds in.
Three African podiums in two days
Elramly, ranked seventh in the world in his class according to specialist site JudoInside, joins Senegal's Matar Diop and Zambia's Elisha Zimba, who took bronze on Sunday. Slovenia's Maks Čebulj won under-81kg gold on a golden-score decision over Iran's Sobhan Hakimi; the under-52kg and under-63kg titles went to Kazakhstan and Germany, the official results show.
Judo continues on Tuesday with the under-78kg and under-100kg finals, from 16:14 GMT at the Dakar Expo Center. Fixtures are on our Dakar 2026 page.