...CAVB...CONFEDERATION AFRICAINE DE VOLLEYBALL

8th ALL AFRICA GAMES- FINALS:
GOLD MEDALS FOR EGYPT MEN AND NIGERIA WOMEN

Abuja, Nigeria, October 18-: Egypt and Nigeria shared the gold medals in the volleyball competition of All Africa Games here in Abuja, Nigeria. Egypt men won the gold on the expense of the organizers, Nigeria, while Nigerian women had an exciting victory over the Egyptians in one of the most exciting matches of African women volleyball. The competition took a great interest because the men and women's gold medals were critical to determine the overall champion of the Games between Egypt and Nigeria. Egypt already won the competition after getting the men's Gold. Many big characters attended the finals led by Mrs. Nkoyo Ibori, wife of Belta state Governor, and president of special sports federation and Dr. Amr Elwani CAVB President.

MEN'S FINAL

Nigeria couldn't stop the severe Egyptian attacks for more than three sets as Egypt clinched straight sets (25-23, 25-23, 25-21) victory to win the gold medal. The match started by activity of Nigerian team who responded to the great support of their spectators to lead 8-5 after successive powerful spikes of Thomas Aroko and Aye. Egypt began their known fast spikes from all net positions through Saleh Fathy and Ossama Komsan to lead 22-20, and then they end the set 25-23 after a group of spikes from the most experienced Egyptian player Hamdy Elsafy.

The second set went point by point all through as Egypt dominate till the end of first technical time out 8-6 through the spikes of Elsafy, then Nigeria organized their block by Yohanna Tswevini and Ogungbemi Shina to come to 20-20. Egypt ended the set 25-23 after a group of spikes of Komsan and Nehad Shehata.

Egyptian coach, Veclin Vikavate changed his active setter Mohamed Abdelrahman to play with the other active Ashraf Aboulhassan and also he bushed the promising Ahmed Salah from the bench to re-activate the power of his team. Egypt had the lead also from the start by the solid block of Komsan and Elsafi, and the spikes of Salah and Hassona to end the set 25-21 and achieve the gold medal.

WOMEN'S FINAL

In one of the most interesting women volleyball matches may be in history, Nigeria won the gold medal defeating Egypt in a five setter magnificent match (24-26, 25-16, 21-25, 25-23, 15-6) to win the first ever African volleyball competition in history. The match started very nervous as both teams were tensioned because the gold medal of this match may determine the champion of All Africa Games. Nigeria started more concentrating to lead 4-1 by the efficient spikes of team captain Chinyere Onuoha. Egyptian superstar Tahany Toson made here work to decrease the point deficit to 8-7 in the first technical time out. Nigeria again made good attacking work by Ladi Jalmet to lead again 16-13. Egypt team reached their peak after that, as they arranged the block by Neamat Badawy and Tahany to reach the set point 24-21, then Kenya struggled to reach the draw 24-24 when Egypt got two points by solid blocks.

The second set showed a complete dominance of Nigeria as they were better in defense through their libero Shelia Athekane to lead 8-5 and 16-11. Nigeria increased their activity to penetrate the weak Egypt block to end the set 25-16.

The third set was very exciting as Egypt regain the rhythm to lead 8-7 by their good block. The Nigerian star Ladi Jalmet had a knee injury to go out the field, and then the performance of the winger Dina Yousef reached its peak to lead Egypt to win the set 25-21.

The fourth set began with a momentum of Egyptian players with their high spirit to lead 8-7 through the efficient setting of Yosra Selim. Nigeria deployed their good back line defense to control the hits of the match star Tahany and this allowed them to come from three points behind to win the set 25-23 after very high performance of Chinyere and Dorothy and to extend the match to tie break.

The tie break showed a controversial events as Egypt began very active to lead 5-2 by the solid block, then accidentally Nigerian team blow up to score 6 successive points to reach 8-5 in change court. Afterwards, the depressed Egyptians didn't score except one point, while the high spirit Nigerians made a magnificent moments and both Dorothy and Chinyere ended the match 15-6 by their successful spikes.

THIRD PLACE MATCHES

Cameroon men team came from two sets behind Algeria to have an exciting 3-2 victory (19-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, 15-12). Algerian players were more enthusiastic to win the match in the first two sets, so they used the potential of their young player Mehdi Hachemi to get the lead in the first set by his powerful spikes from position 2 and to win 25-19. In the second set Algeria continued their superiority in all techniques by good organization of their setter Yacine Hakmi who made successful setting to his team, specially the experienced star Nassim Hedroug and Walid Benmansour. Cameroon appeared as a different team from the third set as their prominent stars specially the French based Coustani Tchouassi increased the activity to win the set 25-20. The Algerian performance continued their decline allowing Cameroon to dominate the court after the strong spiker Timothe Mbala increased his activity to win the fourth set also 25-20 and extend the match to tie break. The highly fit Cameroon players succeeded to win the tie break 15-12 to get the bronze medal which is considered the same position they had in the last African Nations Championship in Cairo.

Kenya women team could manage the women's third place match in only an hour defeating Cameroon 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 31-29) despite the absence of their emerging stars Lucy Chege. It was easy for the winners to pass the first and second sets after they led the net action through their prominent stars Catherine Wanjiru and Dorcas Ndasaba. The latter made a solid barrier against the Cameroon hits to allow her team to gain easily both sets. The third set took half the match time as it was very exciting when Cameroon spiker Mafo Mbobanda began here active work to go point by point with Kenya in the longest set in the competition. Cameroon reached twice the set point when they developed good block against Kenyan hits but finally the experience of Dorcas ended the set and match towards the Kenyan side after winning the set 31-29.