2006 Women under 21 African Nations Championship:

Big battle for 2007 World Championship spot

Alexandria, Egypt, September 14-: five African teams will compete together for the last age group World Championship vacancy this year when they battle for the sweet spot on the eleventh 2006 Women’s Under 20 African Nations Championship to be held in Alexandria, Egypt 15-20 September at Union club hall which hosted the 2006 World Championship qualifications last year. The winner of the competition will secure the 2007 World Championship vacancy of this age category.

The competition will feature all the big forces of this age category including the defending champions, Egypt, the big favorites Tunisia, the last competition runner up Nigeria, the 2004 Bronze medalists Senegal and the new comers Seychelles.

Egypt team prepared well during the past two months under supervision of the Cuban coach Luis Martinez who will lead the Egyptian first team also in the 2006 World Championship in Japan aided by the Egyptian assistant coach Emad Nawar. The team had a camp in the Olympic centre in Cairo since the start of July till they shifted the camp to Alexandria since a week to finalize the preparation. The team includes some first team players as led by Hagar Badr, Nahla Sameh and Menat allah as well as some of the younger age players who participated in the Girls Under 18 African Nations championship in Algeria last August.

Tunisia will be as usual one of the big forces competing for the World Championship vacancy after their Girls under 18 and Boys under 19 counterparts clinched the prestigious qualification to the FIVB events. The Tunisian team will depend on four players from the team that won the Girls under 18 African Nations Championship in Algeria last month after mouth watering final against Egypt ended in five sets.

Nigeria had good preparation last month and depends on the new generation that will lead the country in the next year’s senior African Nations championship as well as defending their gold medal in the 2007 All Africa Games in Algeria.

Senegal also is a promising team as they depend on a new generation with the remains of the team that achieved the bronze medal in the last competition in Nigeria 2004.