[ecr]

The lion's share of the medals went to Algerian swimmers. At the end of the competitions, held at the Miloud Hadefi Olympic Complex in Oran, the national team won 23 silver medals, 14 bronze and 23 gold.

Jordan ranked second with 13 medals (4 gold, 7 silver and 2 bronze), followed on the podium by Syria, which snatched 10, including 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze.

The Palestinian national team’s performance was remarkable, particularly the two swimmers, Valerie Tarazi and El Bouab.

Palestine finished the swimming events with a good harvest, taking 8 medals (4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze) and ranking fourth.  

In fact, the Palestinian swimmers did better than their Tunisian counterparts, who even though they collected a total of 20 medals, finished fifth, having won only 2 gold medals, compared with 7 silver and 11 bronze.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia ranked sixth and seventh with a total of 5 and 4 medals respectively, but none of their swimmers managed to reach the top step of the podium.

Of the twelve countries represented in the competition, five finished empty-handed, namely Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).[/ecr]