8th ALL AFRICA GAMES- SEMIFINAL:

DOUBLE NIGERIA- EGYPT MEETINGS IN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S FINAL

Abuja, Nigeria, October 17-: In an exciting day reflecting the great progress of Africa volleyball, the organizer Nigeria and Egypt made it a double final between them in both men and women competitions to be played Saturday in the closing day of volleyball competition of the eighth All Africa Games here in Abuja, Nigeria. CAVB President,Dr. Amr Elwani, the famous Cameroon football star Roger Milla and the minister of sports in Cameroon, Bidoung Mkpat attended the matches in a full capacity hall. In Men's competition, the most favorite Egypt defeated Algeria, while Nigeria dismissed Cameroon. In women's competition Egypt had a very difficult victory over the highly progressing Cameroon team in the day's only tie breaker, while Nigeria dismissed Cameroon in the easiest of semifinal matches. Cameroon will meet Algeria Friday also in the third place match of men competition, and Kenya plays Cameroon in the third place of women's.

MEN'S SEMIFINAL

Deploying good defense and solid block, Egypt pulled off 3-1 victory (25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 25-18) over their Arch rivals Algeria to reach the final for the third successive time in All Africa Games. Egyptian Coach, vasline Vikavate started the match with his main line up including Ossama Komsan, who suffers an attack of flu in the last two days and Saleh Fathi who had a knee problem. This allowed the team to have an early advance using the strong spikers Nehad Shehata and Saleh Fathi and the solid back line defense by the libero Wael Elaydy and Hamdi Elsafy to win the first set easily 25-17. Due to Algerian block gap, the second set also went the same as Egypt organized their group of attacking complexes led by the efficient setter Mohamed Abdelrahman and the spikes of Elsafy and Komsan to win 25-15 easily. Algerian team revived in the third set and used the wing spiker Mohamed Hachemi and the experienced player Hedroug Nassim to penetrate the solid Egypt block and to win the set 25-23 after a decline of the Egyptian performance as the coach bushed some reserve players. In the fourth set the young emerging Egyptian Ahmed Salah made it possible to regain the rhythm aided by El-Safy and Mahmoud Hassona to win the set 25-18.

The organizer's team didn't let a chance for Cameroon to breath as they win in straight sets 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 in a match was excepted to be more equivalent. (We did our job without leaving a chance for our opponent to organize their line up), Said the Nigerian coach, Onatuga Suraj. Nigeria team supported by the full capacity of the competition hall (about 3000 spectators) led from the start using their big gun Thomas Aroko who played in position number 4 instead of 2 to use his strong hits to allow his team to win the first set with the aid of the French based professional Aye Edosa 25-22. In the second set Cameroon revived through their star Coustani Tchouassi who plays for French club of Toulouse to go point by point with Nigeria till they reach to 16-15 in the second technical time out. Nigeria led after that steadily by their solid block of Jatto Emanuel to win the set 25-21. It was easy for Nigeria to dominate in the third set over the depressed unstable Cameroon players to win widely 25-19.

WOMEN'S SEMIFINAL

Nigeria made the biggest Games surprise when they swept Kenya, the leader of Africa women volleyball in the last decade 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-17, 25-20) to reach the final for the first time. In the first set Nigeria led from the start using the powerful spiker Chinyere Onuoha from position 3 and also Dorothy Egum from position 4. The disturbed Kenyan team specially in the back line defense couldn't manage to stop these hits to allow Nigeria to win the first set 25-22. The Kenyan coach David Lingaho managed to re-organize his defense by the libero Mercy Wesutila and this allowed the setter Judith Serenge to lead the attacking complexes to the spikers Lucy Chege and the leader of the competition scorers and Dorocas Ndasaba. Kenya led from the start 8-6 and 16-12 and they manage their block to stop the Nigerian hits to end the set 25-21. The third set showed efficient Nigerian spikes by Esther Dusu and Dorothy to regain their dominance and win the set 25-17. In the fourth set the Nigerians deployed their solid block against the spikes of Dorocas and Catherine to relief the defense and allow them to win the set 25-20 and reach the final spot.

In the most exciting match of the competition Egypt and Cameroon teams showed the shining face of the African women volleyball as Egypt had a very difficult victory deploying the artistry of team captain Tahany Toson who played her best match in the competition. Cameroon started the match with a well organized defense and block by Avebe Minsili and Angon Belang to lead 8-2 using the loose Egyptian defense. Afterwards Egyptian star Tahany Toson stated here unblocked series of spikes to allow Egypt to come near in the second technical time out when Cameroon led only 16-15. Egypt continued to win the set 25-20 after deploying their solid block. In the second set Cameroon star Angon and here teammate Ondoua Messina started actively in spiking to allow their team to lead 8-7, then they continued their efficient spikes through Ondoua and Mbobenda Mafo to win the set 25-21. Egyptian Head coach bushed the emerging star Dina Yousef as he reserved here in the bench from the start and this allowed the efficient setter Yosra selim to arrange here setting to both Dina and Tahani to lead 8-3 and 16-10. Cameroon players were disturbed when the referee gave a yellow card to Cameroon team as a delay penalty to pave the way for the Egyptian team to win the set 25-18. The fourth set showed many mistakes of all Egyptian players specially in the reception and digging and this allowed Cameroon to dominate through their immune block of Mbeya Ambatta to win the set 25-18. The tie break was very exciting as Cameroon used its left handed winger Mbobenda to lead 4-1, then Tahany and Dina made they work by the net to allow Egypt to make it 8-7 in the change court. In the most exciting part of the match both teams made an interesting rallies due to the solid block and back line defenses specially from Avebe. Egypt had the match point twice while Cameroon had it once, but it was the experience which ended the tie break towards the Egyptian side 17-15 to win the critical match.