14th MEN'S AFRICAN NATIONS
CHAMPIONSHIP-FIRST DAY
The first day of the 14th African Nations Championship was very
exciting as the Organizers defeated Tunisia 3/1 in an early
final in Group A, while RD Congo defeated Rwanda also 3/1 in the
same group. Algeria defeated South Africa 3/0 and Cameroon
defeated Morocco 3/0 in Group B
Dr Amr Elwani CAVB President and Talaat Guineedy the head of
sports sector in the Ministry of Youth opened the championship
in presence of big number of spectators
RD CONGO-RWANDA
In the first match between RD Congo and Rwanda , the first
appeared in good performance to lead steadily from the first set
25/20 due to the solid block and good back defense. The Rwanda
team reached its best performance in the second set to win in
the best and most exciting part of the match 27/25 in about 30
minutes. Congo team regain the rhythm to win the third and
fourth sets in a shorter time 25/17 and 25/21.
CAMEROON-MOROCCO
In the second match Cameroon team was good enough to win in
straight sets 25/19-25/14-25/20 over Morocco in only 74 minutes.
In the first set Cameroon led through the perfect attacks of the
spiker Nanga Guy and the perfect block of Nziemi Jean to end the
first set 25/19 in 26 minutes. In the second set Morocco began
more active through the good performance of Said Rhoudou in both
spiking and attacking skills, but again Cameroon team the
defending champion regain the lead to win 25/14 in only 23
minutes. The third set was the best for morocco team due to
improved digging and reception, but due to perfect sevices of
Ndaki Mboulet and good spiking of Libom Serge Cameroon team won
25/20 in 25 minutes.
ALGERIA-SOUTH AFRICA
In the third match only 69 minutes were enough for Algeria , one
of the favorites to win the cup, to take over the South African
team in straight sets 27/25-25/23-25/18. The first set was the
most exciting as South Africa key player Guershon Rorich spiked
efficiently to lead his team before Kerboula Ali, the Algerian
team superstar did his best to regain the lead till winning the
set 27/25 in 25 minutes. In the second set the Algerian spiker
Bernaoui Krimo made several attacking complexes with his setter
Rabia Kamel to lead helped by the efficient block of Hachemi
Mehdi. The set ended 25/23 in 20 minutes easier. The third set
was the shortest as it was ended in the biggest point difference
25/18 due to the solid block of Amrane Riad.
EGYPT-TUNISIA
In the fourth and last match of the first day Egypt team
achieved the first win over Tunisia since 10 years 3/1
(26/24-25/22-19/25-28/26) in the most exciting match in the
opening day. It took 101 minutes for the organizers to win over
the team carrying the African record of the Nations
championship(seven out of thirteen). It was an adventure from
the Egyptian coach Abdel-Hamid Elwassimy to choose Tunisia for
the opening match but he achieved what he was hoping specially
from the psychological point of view. In the first set Egypt
began very strong to lead from the start 8/6 in the first
technical time-out due to the good performance of the superstar
of the match Hamdy El-Safi who made efficient spikes. Tunisia
regain their rhythm at the end of the set due to the spikes of
Noureddine Hfaiedh, but Egyptian team succeeded to win the set
26/24. In the second set it was easier for the Egyptian to
continue their rhythm and to win 25/22 in 29 minutes with the
attacking complexes of Islam Awad and El-Safi and the efficient
block of Ayman Roshdy. In the third set Tunis Team was good
enough to lead from the start with the proper setting of Ghazi
Guidara and spikes of Hosni Karamosly to end the set 25/19. The
fourth set was very exciting as the Egyptian team regain the
rhythm to win 28/26 after Tunisia made twice the set point.
CGI
