2006 Men’s volleyball World Championship:

Egypt head to Thailand for the final preparations

Cairo, Egypt, November 7-: Egypt Men’s Volleyball team leaves for Thailand on Wednesday for their final preparation through a camp there before their direct departure to Japan on 15th November to participate in the 2006 World Championship.
The camp will include three friendly matches with the National team and some other teams their where the Polish Coach of Egypt Grzegrez Rys will put the last touch on the main line up playing in the big event.
The head coach with his assistants Ahmed Zakaria and Sherif El Shemerly named the final World Championship squad just before leaving to Thailand in order to keep the pace of all the players included in the last training camp in the Olympic Centre in Cairo. Dropped from the team after the last camp are the injured wing spiker Mohamed Abdel Moneim who was one of the outstanding players during the last World League and the setter Mohamed Abdel Rahman who haven’t regain yet his performance since the long absence
Veteran Ahly club star who has participated ion the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and in the 2002 World Championship in Argentina was among those who made the final list of 12 players traveling to Japan after he missed most of the 2006 World League matches due to injury. The final squad includes the two big stars Ahmed Salah, the opposite player who was the MVP in the 2006 African Clubs Champions Championship in South Africa and the strong attacker Saleh Fathy who both missed the World League matches due to shoulder operations.
“We hope to use the last camp to reach out top performance as the team was in the 2005 Grand Champions Cup in Japan,” Said the Coach Grzegrez Rys. “I’m happy with the return back of the big stars like Hamdy El Safy and Ahmed Salah who are the key stars in our planning to be the first African team to qualify to the second round of the World Championship.” He added.
The final list of 12 players includes: Abdalla Ahmed Abdel Salam, Ashraf Aboulhassan (Setters), Hamdy Awad El Safy, Saleh Yousef Fathy, Mohamed Abdel Kader, Mahmoud El Komy (Attackers), Usama Bakheit, Mohamed El Nafrawy, Hossam Shaarawy (Middle Blockers), Ahmed Salah, Mohamed Gabl (Opposites) and Wael El Aidy (Libero).
Egypt will play in Pool A in the World Championship along with the organizers Japan, Argentina, China, Poland and Puerto Rico.