Team Algeria

The African Championships held in in Yaoundé, Cameroon over the weekend determined the first teams and individual athletes set to compete at world championships in Rotterdam later this year.

The team from Algeria – headlined by Olympic champion Kaylia Nemour and featuring three other French transplants Djenna Laroui, Léna Khenoun, and Louna Hamames Moallic alongside Sihem Hamidi – defeated the usual top contenders to earn the WAG team berth while also winning a historic team gold medal for their program.

Nemour was the star of the competition, winning the all-around gold medal by more than six points to lead her team to the title before going on to win another three golds on bars, beam, and floor in the weekend’s apparatus finals. In the bars competition, she also debuted a new release, catching an inbar layout Tkachev in mixed grip,

Laroui also proved to be a winning addition to the program, taking the title on vault in addition to winning a silver medal on beam and a pair of bronze medals on bars and in the all-around, and Algeria had another two apparatus finalists, with Hamames Moallic finishing fifth on floor – just a tenth away from a medal – and Hamidi finishing seventh on vault.

South Africa’s Caitlin Rooskrantz won the silver medal in the all-around after a mostly good day, with teammates Naveen Daries and Zelmé Daries rounding out the top five. Though their performances weren’t enough to get a team back to worlds, both Rooskrantz and the elder Daries sister picked up individual berths alongside Judy Abdalla and Jana Mahmoud of Egypt and Salina Bousmayo of Morocco.

The South African ladies won the silver medal in the team competition and Egypt won the bronze. Both nations also picked up a few individual medals, with South Africa seeing a silver from Buhle Nhleko on vault and a silver from Rooskrantz on bars, while for Egypt, Sirine Abouelhoda won bronze medals on vault and floor, and Jana Abdelsalam won bronze on beam. The only other WAG athlete outside of the top three nations to land on a podium was Bousmayo, who won the silver medal on floor.

On the men’s side, Egypt had a decisive win in the team competition, led by two-time Olympian Omar Mohamed, who also won the all-around, rings, parallel bars, and high bar titles. Egypt’s squad also included silver all-around medalist, pommel horse champion, and floor bronze medalist Mohamed Afify, vault silver and high bar bronze medalist Mostafa Ahmed, pommel horse silver and rings bronze medalist Omar Elshobki, and vault finalist Yahia Zakaria.

There were only two individual MAG berths available for worlds here, with these spots going to all-around bronze medalist Adam Cogat of Algeria, who also won silver medals on floor, parallel bars, and high bar, and Hamza Hossaini of Morocco, who was fifth all-around in addition to winning gold on vault and bronze on parallel bars.

Behind Egypt in the team competition were Algeria with the silver medal and South Africa with the bronze. Rounding out the apparatus final medalists were Daniel McLean of South Africa with gold on floor, Houssem Eddine Hamadouche of Algeria with silver on rings, Youcef Semmani of Algeria with bronze on pommel horse, and Ahmed Labidi of Tunisia with bronze on vault.

We’re tracking the Rotterdam 2026 qualifiers all season, and if you’re interested in following along, you can check them out here for WAG and here for MAG. The trackers also explain each qualification step across the continental championships and world cups, as well as how many athletes qualify at each event and overall.

Also don’t miss the complete results from the African Championships, with WAG available here and MAG available here. We’ll also share the junior results as soon as they become available.

Article by Lauren Hopkins