Egypt’s armless TT ‘legend’ is in a class apart

RIO DE JANEIRO: Egypt’s Ibrahim Hamadtou can swing a table tennis racket as well as the next Paralympian, but that’s not what makes him a sensation: Hamadtou holds the racket between his teeth.

While the Rio Paralympics are full of stories of men and women who have trained their impaired bodies to compete at the highest level, Hamadtou, who lost both arms above the elbow in a childhood train accident, stands apart as the only table tennis player even to try the feat.

Although he lost in his Paralympic debut, falling to the highly-rated British world number four, David Wetherill, and then to Germany’s Thomas Rau, the wiry 43-year-old said he was elated. “I’m just happy that I could come from Egypt to be here at the Paralympics and to play against a champion,” he told AFP. “I can’t express what my heart is feeling: I’m too happy.”