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Day 5
Egypt
and Tunisia men, Kenya and Seychelles women complete the
semifinal slots
Blida, Algeria, July 19,
2007-: The big two continental forces Tunisia and Egypt men
teams as well as Kenya and Seychelles women teams joined the
host teams Algeria, men and women as well as Cameroon women and
Kenya men to the semifinal of the Men’s and women’s volleyball
competition of the ninth All Africa Games here at both Moustafa
Tchaker and Lysee Sportif halls in Blida, Algeria at the end of
the preliminary round on Thursday.
In men’s competition
Algeria and Kenya qualified form Pool A, while pool B presented
Tunisia and Egypt as semifinal qualifiers. In Women’s
competition Algeria and Seychelles qualified from pool A, and
Cameroon and Kenya secured the semifinal spot in Pool B.
The semifinals of the
Men’s competition will feature a big clash between Algeria and
Egypt while Tunisia meets Kenya on Saturday. The women’s semis
will comprise another big face of between Algeria and Kenya
while Cameroon plays Seychelles. All the matches will be held on
Saturday.
Men’s
Competition
 In
Men’s competition, the lions of Cameroon achieved a big surprise
beating Tunisia 3-1 (30-28, 15-25, 25-22, 25-21) in a fantastic
match lasting 96 minutes of very exciting volleyball. This was
the firs ever victory for Cameroon over Tunisia in an African
competition. Cameroon was eliminated in spite of this big
victory, while Tunisia qualified to the semifinal as top of the
pool. The first set was the most aggressive as Cameroon won
30-28 after exciting performance from their spikers Robert Samou
and Patrice Ndaki who played a historic game. Tunisia regained
their rhythm to win the second set 25-15 after a group of strong
hits from the wing spiker Khalid Belaid. Cameroon performance
reach their utmost in the third and fourth sets after they
deployed the solid block of Marcel Ndaki to win both sets and
achieve the great victory
Egypt defeated Senegal in
straight sets 25-17, 25-21, 25-20 in 62 minutes to secure the
second slot in Pool B. The winners played without their Italian
based setter Abdalla Abdel Salam who complained of fever. Egypt
started the match in good performance to win by a big point
ration to get the first position so they won the first set after
a group of efficient spikes from Ahmed Salah and Hamdy El Safi.
Senegal came to the match and succeeded to lead many times till
Egypt came in the suitable time to win the set in a narrower
point deficit. The third set showed many mistakes from the
Egyptians in reception and defense to lose the chance of
progressing to the top of the pool. By the end of Pool B matches
Tunisia, Egypt and Cameroon were level in the win loss ratio by
4-1 each, but according to the point ratio Tunisia came first,
then Egypt and both qualified to the semifinal while Cameroon
came third and eliminated.
Nigeria achieved their
second victory in their last match in Pool B when they won
Botswana 3-1 (27-29, 25-22, 25-17, 25-29) in 109 minutes. After
Botswana won the long first set due to the fitness of their
scorer Shadrack Kapeko, Nigeria came back through improvement of
their backline defense to win three successive sets to bring the
victory that improved their win loss ratio to 2-3 to end the
first round in the fourth position with 7 points. Botswana came
at the bottom of the pool with a record of 1-4.
Algeria ended their first
round matches with a clean sheet winning their 5 matches. Their
last victory over Kenya was very exciting due to the overcrowd
of their spectators which stopped the match for 45 minutes
before Algeria won in straight sets 25-17, 25-21, 25-16. The
host team was better in attacks and defense and controlled the
match from the Kenyans from the start till the end. This victory
put Algeria at the top of pool A with 10 points with a record of
5-0, while Kenya came in the second position with a record of
4-1.
South Africa recorded
their competition third victory over Congo 3-1 (19-25, 25-23,
25-17, 25-22) in 86 minutes. Congo played their best in the
competition in the first set when they led all through by the
efficient hits of both Abrahys and Davy Koulehouassazo. South
Africa returned to the game in the second set and their star
Freedom Chiya did a good job to lead his team to come back from
one set behind to win 3-1. The victory put South Africa in the
third position with a record of 3-2. Congo improved their record
to 1-4 to occupy the fifth position.
Ghana achieved their
first victory in the final day of the preliminary round over
Seychelles 3-1 in 91 minutes. The victory keeps Ghana at the
bottom of the pool with the same record of Seychelles (1-4) but
they advanced through the point ratio.
Women
competition
 In
Women’s competition, Seychelles defeated South Africa in the
most exciting match of the day after a marathon ended in a
tiebreak 19-25, 25-14, 22-25, 25-20, 15-9 in 108 minutes. The
victory gave the emerging Seychelles team the qualification
ticket to the semifinal. South Africa led 2-1 after good
performance from their stars Annie Apasamy who was the match
scorer with 22 points and Jerina Bonne who scored 20 points.
Thereafter Seychelles team came to the match aggressively and
was more motivated to win, so they rebounded form one set behind
to win the fourth set and extend the match to tiebreak where
they succeeded to win it through their resistant backline
defense and the superior performance of their stars Vitalina Nil
and Yulia Thomas. The victory improved the Seychelles recorded
to 3-1 to be ranked second in Pool A with 7 points ahead of
south Africa who was ranked third with a record of 2-2.
Cameroon Women team
continued their clear sheet and achieved the fifth victory in a
raw over Tunisia in straight sets 25-16, 25-14, 25-21 in 62
minutes in pool B. Again the two superstars in the winner
Rebecca Ngo and Ruth Diboue played a great role in the victory
with their efficient spikes which penetrated easily the Tunisian
undisciplined block. Ruth was the match scorer with 19 points.
Cameroon ended the first round at the top of pool B with 10
points and secured the qualification to the second round.
Tunisia dropped to 3-2.
 Kenya
secured the second slot to the semifinal in Pool B after their
exciting victory over Egypt 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 26- 28, 25-13) in
minutes. Kenya used their big guns on the front line specially
Docoras Ndasaba and Catherine Wanjiru to win the first and
second sets easily and were going to win the third set widely
when they led 24-16 before losing 8 match points to lose the set
30-28 after the best performance for the Egyptians in the
competition with the efficient hits of Enjy El Shamy and Dina
Youssef. Kenya won the fourth set comfortably to achieve the
victory that improved their record to 4-1 to end the pool
matches in the second position of pool B leaving the Egyptians
in the fifth position with 1-4 record.
The defending champions
of women’s competition, Nigeria set their second victory over
Senegal 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-19) in 74 minutes in Pool B. The
competition best scorer Esther Dusu of Nigeria played a great
role in the victory with here 22 points scored in the match to
raise here total number of points in the competition to 97. The
Nigerians were better in most of the volleyball skills specially
the block and the reception. Although they had this victory
Nigeria lost the title they achieved in 2003 in their homelands
as they improved their record to 2-3 in their five matches as
they ended the preliminary matches in the fourth position to be
eliminated. Senegal ends the competition at the bottom of the
pool without any victory with a record of 0-5.
In a match of outsiders
Ethiopia set their only victory before elimination over Ghana
3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-22) in 72 minutes. The Ethiopian team
played their best match and succeeded to use their better
spikers to win the critical points of each set. The winners
ended the competition in the fourth position in pool B with a
record of 1-3. Ghana came at the bottom of the pool with 0-4
record.
Photo Caption
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Cameroon team played
well but eliminated
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Seychelles women
achieved surprise
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Algeria women team
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