General Sabry
General Omar Baligh Sabry is an Egyptian open water swimmer who was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965 as an Honour Swimmer and played for the Egyptian Olympic water polo team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. He remains an honorary member of the Maadi Sporting Club and swims regularly in the swimming pool of my youth.
Military Career
During 1950-1956, he was stationed in the northern western desert stationed at Ras el Hekma near Marsa Matrouh and in the United States where he studied at Texas A & M University. He saw active duty in the 1956 Suez War. He remained in the Ministry of Agriculture until 1964 that was followed by a 10-year posting in Tanzania. In 1973, he was transferred to FAO HQ in Rome, Italy until he retired.
Open Water Swimming Career
- He served as the President of the Egyptian Long Distance Swimming Federation in the 1950s.
- He volunteered for an English Channel crossing that received The Daily Mail prize for its 1949 crossing. Omar Sabry was a swimmer in a 6-man relay from Egypt that completed an English Channel crossing from England to France in 11 hours 11 minute on 7 September 1949, breaking the existing record of 12 hours 35 minutes set in 1938 by a French relay team. The members included Marie Hassan Hamad, Mohmod Mahamed Hassan, Omar Sabry, Ahmad El Zerkani, Aley Addine and Hassan Abdel Rehim.
External links
- Mohamed Ahmed Marouf Joins Line Of Egyptian Greats
- Top Swimmers On The Egyptian National Team Of The 1950s
- Marathon Swimming Hall Of Famers At The Olympics
- International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame
- Omar Sabry Looking Back Eight Decades
- My Finest Hour Has Come
- International Marathon Swimming Hall Of Fame Origins
- World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation History
- International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame
- Open Water Swimming
- World Open Water Swimming Association
- WPMSF Led To IMSHOF
- World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation
- Marathon Swimming
- Daily News of Open Water Swimming
