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2008
Olympic Games- Men’s African Qualifications,
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Tunisia secure the
fourth ticket to semifinal
Durban, South Africa February 7, 2008- Tunisia
completed the final 4 teams qualified to the
semifinal of the Africa Olympic qualification to
determine continental representative in Beijing 2008
after the other three teams Egypt, Cameroon and
Algeria have already secured semifinal berth before.
Tunisia defeated Gabon in Pool B while Morocco lost
their hopes of a semifinal ticket after losing
against Egypt in the fifth and last day of the
preliminary round here at Tongaat hall in Durban,
South Africa on Thursday.
In a tough match determining the first and second
positions of pool A Algeria defeated Cameroon in one
of the competition’s most exciting matches, while
the organizers South Africa left the competition
with a victory over Rwanda.
T the end of pool stage Algeria led pool A followed
by Cameroon and both qualified to the semifinal,
then South Africa third, Nigeria fourth and Rwanda
fifth. Egypt finished at the top of pool B followed
by Tunisia and both qualified followed by Morocco
third, Gabon fourth and Mozambique fifth.
It is well known that the champions of this
competition will secure the African Vacancy in the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The matches were attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr
Elwani, CAVB first Vice president and South Africa
Volleyball Federation President Mr. Tubby Reddy,
CAVB Vice president Mr. Baba Sy and Control
Committee members Mr. Camilo Antao, CAVB Referee
committee president Mr. Hassan Ahmed and CAVB
Technical director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.
Cameroon vs.
Algeria
Algeria achieved a big surprise when they defeated
Cameroon 3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 12-25, 25-19) in 91
minutes in the big match for the top of pool A.
Algeria ended the pool stage at the first position
with a win- loss ratio of 4-0 to and 8 points
leaving Cameroon in the second position with a
record of 3-1 and 7 points but both secured the
semifinal tickets of the pool. Algeria was dominant
in the match through their strong spike services
which were not tolerated by the Cameroon team which
was out of form.
Algeria started the match as the better side and
they surprised Cameroon team with their potent
service of Toufik Mahdjoubi, Ali Kerboua and Mohamed
Chikhi to disturb their reception and defense.
Cameroon bad reception was the main cause to lose
the first set 25-21.
In the second set Algeria concentrated on the
attacks specially through the left attackers Kerboua
and Chikhi so they kept their dominance all through
until they won the set 25-21.
Cameroon head coach Mayam Blaise made substitutions
as he changed the setter Marcel Ndaki by the other
setter George Kapi and also put the wing spiker
Valery Tatsi in the squad instead of Wounembaina.
They succeeded to rearrange their reception and
backline defense to lead in most of the set and
finished the set 25-21.
In the fourth set the battle was very warm as
Algeria used as usual their big gun Kerboua who used
well the skillful setting of the setter Debbih
Messaoud to lead 7-5. Cameroon rebounded through the
spikes of Valery Tatsi and Wounembaina but Algeria
led narrowly 8-7. Cameroon coach substituted the
setter George Kari by Marcel Ndaki, but Algeria kept
their dominance until they reached to 16-13 at the
STT. Algeria used as usual the big guns Kerboua and
Chikhi to increase the attacking pressure and widen
the point deficit gradually. The service was also a
big force for the Algerians who used the improper
reception of Cameroon team and continued leading
till they won the set 25-19 to win the match 3-1.
Morocco vs.
Egypt
Egypt continued their clear sheet and achieved their
fourth victory in a row over Morocco 3-0 (25-21,
25-17, 25-21) in 78 minutes. Egypt improved their
win- loss ratio to 4-0 to lead Pool B with 8 points.
Morocco dropped to 2-2 to finish the preliminary
round in the third position with 6 points.
Egypt head coach returned back to the standing line
up after he played with the substitutes in the two
matches against Gabon and Mozambique, while Morocco
started with the usual squad. Egypt started using
the strong spike service of Ahmed Salah and Saleh
Fathy, and then Morocco improved their defense and
block of Idriss Cherqi to stop the Egyptian spikes
of El Safi and Fathy. Morocco led 8-6 at the FTT and
kept their consistency until the draw 14-14 using
the frequent mistakes of Egyptian players but Egypt
returned back to lead 16-14 at the STT. Egypt with
the better backline defense won the set 25-21.
In the second set Egypt used the strong spike
service of Salah and Fathy again to lead at the FTT
8-6. Morocco started to use the spikes of Zakaria
Bairi to penetrate the Egyptian block and also the
block of Idriss but Egypt again had the upper hand
to lead 16-11. The Egyptian coach started to give
the chance to some bench players but he still had
the upper hand to win the set 25-17.
Morocco showed different image in the third set
through some substitutions made by their coach who
pushed Hichem Esseddyq in position 3 and the setter
Faiazid to improve their combinations that succeeded
to put Morocco ahead in the STT 16-14. Egypt
regained their rhythm and started to improve the
block against Bairi and Abicha to draw 20-20. Egypt
used again the big guns Salah to win the set 25-21.
Tunisia vs.
Gabon
Tunisia cut the last ticket to the semifinal
following their win over Gabon 3-0 (25-15, 25-15,
25-15) in 55 minutes. Tunisia ends the preliminary
round in the second position of pool B to secure the
second ticket of the pool in the semifinal after
they raised their record to 3-1 with 7 points after
Egypt. Gabon dropped to 1-3 to finish the pool
matches in the fourth position. Tunisia played the
first two sets with the standing line up but the
head coach Kamel Rakaya made many substitutions in
the third set when he secured the victory.
Tunisia showed dominance in block through Chaker
Ghezal and Bilel Ben Hussine and didn’t allow Gabon
spikers to work so Tunisia led all through the first
set to win 25-15.
The second set showed the same although Gabon tried
to improve the reception to build up the attacks and
to use their attackers Cedric Bekale and Bagafou
Moundzerou but they were stopped by the Tunisian
block.
In the third set Tunisia made substitutions in the
line up but they kept the momentum and succeeded to
dominate the net with good job from the opposite
Hichem Kaabi who led his team to win the set 25-15
and the match in straight sets.
South Africa
vs. Rwanda
The host team South Africa improved their image in
front of their spectators who attended their final
match and clinched their competition second victory
over Rwanda 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 30-32, 31-29) after
good show extending for 107 minutes. The winners
improved their record to 2-2 to leave the
competition in the third position of pool A with 6
points. Rwanda dropped to 0-4 and came at the bottom
of the pool with 4 points.
South Africa started the match more disciplined in
backline defense and used the spikes of Freedom
Chiya and Thokozani Ntuli to penetrate the Rwandan
block and thus South Africa was ahead 8-4 at the
FTT. Rwanda improved the defense and also the block
of Guilermme Irakarama to decrease the point deficit
to 16-15 by the STT. Rwanda kept the draw until
17-17 when Chiya and the setter Gershon Rorich led
the team to win the set 25-21.
Rwanda started the second set more active as the
strong spikers Eric Nsabimana and Ndayi Kenruruki
scored successive points and the block defended
their court to reach 8-4 at the FTT. South Africa
again arranged their block and succeeded to overcome
the Rwandan spikes and ended the set 25-22.
The Rwandan team played their best in the third set
as they deployed the solid block against the south
African attacks all through the Marathon set util
the most exciring part of the match when Rwanda led
24-21 but they missed two set points before the two
teams continued the rally of points till Rwanda won
32-30.
The highly motivated Rwandan team started the fourth
set leading 8-5 after a group of spikes from
Nsabimana. The right attacker of the host team did
again his job in spiking from position 2 to allow
his team to lead 14-12 and 16-13 the STT. Again
Naidoo Leslie and Chiya did good job and saved more
than set point for Rwanda to win the set long 31-29 |
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