David Rubio Salguero - Inside the Games

The 13th edition of the African Games will end this Saturday after 20 days of competition in Accra, with Egypt trying to reach an astonishing milestone: 100 gold medals.

Egypt finished with 94 gold medals on Thursday and added five more on Friday. That means that the Mediterranean country has three final chances to make even more history on Saturday. 

The biggest star of the Egyptian team at Accra 2023 is swimmer Marwan Elkamash, who won five gold medals in the men's 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m and 4x200m relays, all in freestyle. He was also a part of the team that finished second in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. 

Another swimmer, Farida Osman, is the new four-time African champion in the 50m and 100m butterfly, the 50m and women's 4x100 freestyle relays and the new four-time runner-up in the 100m freestyle, the women's 4x100m medley relay and the mixed 4x100m medley and 4x100 freestyle relays. 

Egypt also has a total of 10 athletes who have won three gold medals: swimmer Abdalla Nasr (eight medals in total), weightlifters Eslam Abouelwafa, Elsayed Aly Elsayed, Karim Ibrahim, Shima Khaled, Abdelrahman Mohamed, Basma Ramadan, Sara Samir Elsayed, Ahmed Sayed, and also Mariam Hesham in table tennis. 

The closing ceremony will take place this Saturday, marking the start of a four-year period until the next edition, which will be held for the second time in Cairo, Egypt, from 20 January to 7 February 2027. The country's capital also hosted the 1991 Games. 

Egypt, however, will have three final opportunities to reach a record 100 gold medals (they currently have 99, with 46 silver and 42 bronze for a total of 187). Nigeria is second on the medals table with 47, and South Africa will finish in third position with 32. 

Two of those will be in table tennis. The Egyptian men's team beat Zimbabwe 2-0 in the semi-finals and will play Tunisia for the gold medal, while the women's team beat Morocco 2-0 in the semi-finals and will play Nigeria for the continental title. 

Finally, Egypt will also be playing in the men's volleyball final after beating Ghana 3-1 in the semi-finals. They'll be up against a strong Kenya side who gave Nigeria no chance of qualifying for the final (3-0).