8th ALL
AFRICA GAMES- COMPETITION DAY FIVE
SEMIFINALISTS DETERMINED
NIGERIA MEN AND WOMEN TOOK POOL LEAD
Abuja, Nigeria, October 15-: In an exciting day attended by many
sports characters, one of them is the famous Cameroon football
player Roger Milla, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Cameroon men
teams secured places in the semifinal of the volleyball
competition in the eighth All Africa Games here in Abuja,
Nigeria. Egypt will meet Algeria in a North African crucial
clash, while Nigeria plays Cameroon in a West African
confrontation on Friday. In the women's competition Nigeria
Cameroon, Egypt and Kenya reached to the semifinal spot. Nigeria
will meet Kenya and Cameroon Plays Egypt for the final spot,
Friday.
Nigeria men and women had their straight victories in the final
day of preliminary round to lead their pools without a defeat.
The men had a difficult victory over the emerging South Africa,
while the women defeated Seychelles. Egypt women also continued
their series of victories to lead their pool
MEN'S COMPETITION
Nigeria, taking the situation seriously, achieved the fourth
victory in raw over struggling South Africa 3-1 (25-22, 22-25,
26-24, 25-17) to lead pool A and qualify to the semifinal with
Algeria which came second. South Africa came third after leaving
a good impression on the future of their country's volleyball.
South Africa, needed to have straight sets win to have a place
in the semifinal, played a good volleyball and put the hosts in
a critical situation in front of their big spectators, specially
in the second and third sets as their stars Andile Masinga and
Chiya freedom did well with their different spiking complexes.
For the second match in raw the Nigerian Thomas Aroko was the
star of the match with his efficient spikes from position 2,
with the aid of his teammate Aye Edosa.
Ghana claimed their only victory in the competition over Senegal
3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-16) in pool A to be ranked fourth leaving
Senegal in the fifth and last position. As usual Ghana star
Shamsu Awudu was the match star with his efficient spikes from
all net positions with his teammate Casmir Agbenyegah. Senegal
couldn't be solid enough to stop Ghanaian spikes.
Coustani Tchoussi and Timothe Mbala led Cameroon to gain the
third win in the competition over Rwanda 3-0 (25-19, 25-19,
25-16). Cameroon secured a place in semifinal in Pool B with
Egypt, the leader of the pool. The match went easily for the
winner as they completely dominate the net action by their stars
Tchoussi and Mbala who were the scorers of the match.
Seychelles had a 3-0 victory over Botswana (25-21, 25-19, 25-19)
in a match of outsiders in less than an hour. Seychelles
occupied the third position in the pool leaving Botswana in the
fifth and last place. The new emerging Seychelles players Jude
Fredrick and Guy Valentin led their team efficiently to their
second victory in 4 matches in the competition.
WOMEN'S COMPETITION
In an exciting five setter match Cameroon women secured a last
minute place in the semifinal after defeating Ghana in the day's
only tie breaker (25-12, 25-22, 24-26, 21-25, 15-12). Cameroon
was ranked second after Nigeria in pool A, and both qualified to
the semifinal. Cameroon started the match very disciplined to
win the first and second sets easily by the activity of their
spikers Avebe Minsili and Ondoua Messina who led easily the net.
Cameroon team performance dropped a lot as they thought that a
straight sets win is near to allow Ghana to enter the game again
when the spikers Elizabeth Essel and Mary Addai made their work
to allow Ghana to win two successive sets to extend the match to
the tie break. Cameroon team saved their hopes when they
regained the rhythm to win the tie break 15-12 after deploying
the solid block of Mbeya Ambatta and Avebe.
Nigeria defeated the impressive Seychelles team in straight sets
25-23, 25-19, 25-21. Priscilla Agera and Esther Dusu of Nigeria
made it easy for their team to win with the successful spikes,
aided by the solid block of Rosemary Jibunoh . The only 80.000
inhabitants' country left a good picture of volleyball in this
small group of islands specially the spiker Yvonne Legaie who is
considered one of the best players in the tournament. Seychelles
ranked third in pool A.
The relaxed Kenyan player complicated their duty against the
weaker Mozambique to win 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-15), but after
their opponent led in the first and second sets. Kenya coach
David Lingaho relieved some of the main players like Leonida and
Lucy to give them some rest before the semifinal and this gave
the chance for the lower experienced Mozambique players
specially Sifa Quitende and Guilhermina Cossa to control the
match in many parts. Kenya qualified to semifinal as second of
pool B leaving Mozambique in the fifth and last position.
Egypt secured their place on top of pool B after the fourth
victory in raw over South Africa in straight sets 25-20, 25-13,
25-10. It was easy for the Egyptian women to lead all through
the match using their predominance in the technical and tactical
aspects through their stars Tahany Toson, Neamat Badawy and Dina
Yousef, with the steady performance of the setter Yosra Selim.
It was easy for the Egyptians to penetrate the weak block of
South Africa despite the effort of the spiker Nina Hendricks the
best scorer of here team.
CGI
