Mohamed Samandi


Mohamed Rayan Samandi is a Tunisian foil fencer, African champion in 2014. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed in the individual event, but was defeated in the second round.

Career

Samandi took up fencing at the age of ten. In 2005 he was the first African to win a stage of the Junior World Cup in Viana do Castelo in Portugal. He claimed the gold medal at the 2007 All-Africa Games.
Samandi qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing through his results at the African qualifying fencing tournament held in Casablanca, but could not attend the competition due to lack of funds. He qualified to the 2012 Summer Olympics as best-ranked African fencer. In the first round he defeated 15–8 Great Britain's Husayn Rosowsky, but he fell 7–15 in the next round to World No.1 Andrea Cassarà.
He is a member of the AS Bourg-la-Reine fencing club, in the suburbs of Paris. With them he won a team bronze medal at the 2011 French national championships.