Egyptian athlete overcomes injury to win silver at Mediterranean Games - in pictures

Many training centres in the country are in need of repair and this could hold long jumper Esraa Owis back form achieving more

Esraa Owis, 24, a member of the Egyptian national team and Al Ahly club in long jump, attends a training session after overcoming an ankle injury to achieve the first Egyptian silver medal in long jump during the 2022 Mediterranean Games, at the Olympic Center For Training National Teams in Maadi, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt July 20, 2022. REUTERS / Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Doctors originally told Owis that she only had a 10 per cent chance of competing again.

But after seven months of rehab she returned to the track.

'[After the operation] I couldn’t do even the simplest movement and everyday tasks on my own. I walked with crutches and still needed one or two people to help me around. It was very hard on me. I imagined where I had been and where I am now, but as hard as it was it motivated me to come back to sports.'

Owis and her trainer are now gearing up for the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

'We have gone through long phases of exhaustion, injuries, and massive stress. But all this, thank God, vanishes when you are rewarded, like you forget all the effort,' says Hesham Aly, her trainer.

'The first thing that we need for support is to fix this stadium, because it gets players injured on a weekly basis,' Mr Aly says. 'Esraa needs to take great care to be able to qualify. We need internal and external camps and to play internationally several times. Medals are not achieved without support. Everyone should understand that the players who compete in the world championships and won medals, are sponsored with millions.'

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