Egypt secures Beijing spot

Egypt lived up to their billing as pre-tournament favorites by claiming Africa’s lone volleyball slot at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games after topping the ten-day qualifiers’ tournament that climaxed on Saturday in Durban, South Africa. The 2007 Africa Nations and All Africa Games champions preserved their recent supremacy with a 3-2 set victory over Algeria in a thrilling five-set final that lasted over two hours. Egypt started stronger claiming the first two sets but Algeria quickly pulled themselves back into contention by winning the third and fourth sets to set up a tie-break which the Egyptians eventually won. At the end of the competition, the CAVB (Confederation of African Volleyball) President Dr. Amr Elwani presented the Egyptian team with the winners’ trophy while Algeria and Cameroon walked away with silver and bronze medals. Earlier, Cameroon had registered only their second victory in history over Tunisia following a 3-2 set victory in contention for third spot. Cameroon who had lost the first two sets took advantage of a depressed Tunisian side to come through with an emphatic 3-2 set victory. Egypt now joins the Algerian women’s volleyball team who clinched their first ever Olympic ticket last week following straight victories over Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal and South Africa in a round robin African Olympic qualifier that was staged in Blida, Algeria. Meanwhile, the local volleyball governing body (FRVB) has to revise its strategy as far as building a formidable national volleyball team is concerned. The men’s national volleyball team’s poor run on the international scene continued during the just concluded Beijing qualifiers that were staged in South Africa.Ends

Lifestyle

Egypt secures Beijing spot