Omar Assar (born 22 July 1991 in

Desouk Desouk ( ar, دسوق, ) is a city in northern Egypt. Located 80 km east of Alexandria, in the Kafr El Sheikh Governorate and had a population of 137,660 inhabitants as of 2011. It is bordered to the west by the Beheira Governorate. Desouk ...

) is an Egyptian table tennis player. He won silver in singles and gold in team play at the

2011 Arab Games The 2011 Pan Arab Games also known as the 12th Pan Arab Games took place in Doha, Qatar from 6 to 23 December 2011. This was the first time that the country had hosted the multi-sport event. Khalifa International Stadium was the main venue for th ...

in Doha. He also competed at the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

in the Men's singles, but was defeated in the second round on both occasions.

Career

2012 Olympics At the 2012 Summer Olympics Assar competed in the men's singles, where he lost in the second round to

Panagiotis Gionis Panagiotis Gionis (born 7 January 1980) is a Greek table tennis player and a dentist. He is a member in the Greece National Team and has competed in 4 Olympics and many World and European Championships. He has been playing professionally in Germa ...

, and the men's team event, where Egypt lost in the first round to Austria. 2016 Olympics At the 2016 Summer Olympics Assar competed in the men's singles only. He lost in the second round again, this time narrowly losing 3–4 to Lei Kou of Ukraine. ITTF World Championships 2017 ''Men's singles'' Assar competed in the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, seeded as number 50, facing off against Italian player Marco Rech in the first round, whom he defeated in a close match (4-3), having lost the first 3 sets. In the second round, he was defeated by Hong Kong player, and number 7 seed

Wong Chun Ting Wong Chun-ting (; born 7 September 1991) is a Hong Kong table tennis player. He won his first doubles title on the ITTF World Tour in 2012 and won another three doubles titles in 2014. In 2015, he won a bronze medal in mixed doubles event with ...

(2-4). ''Men's doubles'' Assar teamed with fellow Egyptian player Mohamed El-Beiali for the doubles event, in which they were unseeded and faced the number 5 seed Brazilian of

Hugo Calderano Hugo Marinho Borges Calderano (born 22 June 1996, in Rio de Janeiro) is a table tennis player from Brazil. In January 2022, he peaked at number 3 in the world rankings, becoming the greatest Americas player of all time. He is the first-ever pl ...

and

Gustavo Tsuboi Gustavo Tsuboi (born 31 May 1985, São Paulo) is a table tennis player from Brazil, he won three medals in double and team events in the Pan American Games. Along with Hugo Hoyama and Thiago Monteiro, Tsuboi was part of the winning team at the ...

, losing the match (2-4). "Mixed Doubles" Assar teamed with fellow Egyptian player

Dina Meshref Dina Alaa Meshref (Egyptian: دينا علاء مشرف; born 10 March 1994 in Quebec City) is an Egyptian table tennis player who is currently world rank number 28 in ITTF, she is African number 1 table tennis player. She represented Egypt in t ...

for the mixed doubles event, seeded as number 12 team. They advanced to the third round of the tournament, before being eliminated by the Spanish team of Álvaro Robles and

Galia Dvorak Galyna Volodymyrivna "Galia" Dvorak Khasanova ( uk, Галина Володимирівна Дворжака Хасанова; born 1 April 1988) is a Spanish table tennis player. She was born in Kyiv, but her family moved to Spain when she was ...

(1-4). All-African Games Assar won both the 2015 and 2016 All-African Games, Men's Singles. In 2017, his three-peat was interrupted by Nigerian table tennis player,

Quadri Aruna Quadri Akinade Aruna (born 9 August 1988, in Oyo, Nigeria) is a professional Nigeria table tennis player. He competed for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals in the latter competition. He is ...

, who defeated Assar in the tournament final (3-4). 2018 ITTF African-Cup Assar defeated Tunisian table tennis player Thameur Mamia (4-1) in the quarterfinals of the event. He then defeated

Saheed Idowu Saheed Idowu (born 3 January 1990 in Brazzaville) is a Congolese table tennis player. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men's singles, but was defeated in the preliminary round. 2018 ITTF African-Cup Idowu competed in the 2018 ITT ...

in the semifinal (4-0). Finally, Assar defeated long-time rival

in the final of the event in order to win his third African-Cup. 2020 Olympics At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, Assar finished 5th in the men's singles event after losing to China's

Ma Long Ma Long (; born 20 October 1988) is a Chinese table tennis player and the reigning Olympic singles champion. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, he is the first and only male player to complete a career Double Grand ...

in the quarterfinals. He also competed in the men's team event and the

mixed doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...

. As of August 2021, Omar is ranked 36th in the world in the ITTF world rankings. He reached his highest ranking of 16th in March 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assar, Omar 1991 births Living people Olympic table tennis players of Egypt Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Egypt Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Egypt Mediterranean Games medalists in table tennis Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Competitors at the 2022 Mediterranean Games African Games gold medalists for Egypt African Games medalists in table tennis African Games silver medalists for Egypt African Games bronze medalists for Egypt People from Desouk Competitors at the 2011 All-Africa Games Competitors at the 2015 African Games Competitors at the 2019 African Games 21st-century Egyptian people