8th ALL
AFRICA GAMES- COMPETITION DAY FOUR:
NIGERIA AND EGYPT MEN AND WOMEN LEAD
Abuja, Nigeria, October 14-: In a day of Nigerian volleyball
both men and women teams aided by the full capacity of the hall
and Atiku Abubakar, the vice-president of Federal republic of
Nigeria had an important victories over Algeria and Cameroon.
Both teams led their pools in the first round of All Africa
games here in Abuja, Nigeria. Egypt women also led pool B after
they won the crucial clash against their arch rivals Kenya,
while the Egyptian men team had an easy victory over Rwanda to
lead also its pool.
The semifinalists will be completely determined Wednesday after
Egypt, Cameroon and Algeria men and Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya
women already qualified.
MEN'S COMPETITION
In a great crucial clash for the top of pool A the host team
Nigeria could came from two sets behind Algeria to a great
victory in the tie break 3-2 (21-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19,
16-14). The match was the most exciting in the men's competition
till now in presence of the full capacity of spectators in the
hall. Algeria won the first two sets to show that the match will
go to straight sets as they were better in spiking and blocking
by their star Mohamed Hachemi and Nassim Hedroug. The Algerians
showed better disciplined tactics than Nigeria in those sets.
All of a sudden the Nigerian team wake up aided by the noisy
spectators to win the third and fourth sets after good
performance of the French based professional player Thomas Aroko
who become many years younger by his unblocked hits. The tie
break showed Algerian recovery to lead all through till reaching
14-10 when Nigerian stars Thomas and Aye Edosa made it possible
to score six successive points to win the exciting match.
The most favorite Egyptian team claimed the fourth victory in
raw over Rwanda in the easiest of yesterday matches 25-17,
25-15, 25-17 to lead pool B. playing with all the available 12
players Egypt could manage the situation easily with the spiker
Hamdy Elsafi as a superstar of the match. The young Egyptian
player Ahmed Salaheddine gained again the confidence of the
Serbian coach of the team Vaslin Vikavate after his steady
performance. He was a member of Egyptian team who participated
in the U-21 World Championship in Iran.
Botswana team couldn't manage to neutralize the Cameroon big gun
Coustani Tchouassi to allow the lions to have a straight sets
win (25-23, 25-22, 25-8) in only 55 minutes. The French based
star used his powerful hits to penetrate the opponent block to
achieve the second victory and become near the semifinal in pool
B with Egypt. Botswana did well in the first set when they used
their spiking power of Shadrck Kapeko to come near Cameroon and
lose narrowly 23-25, but their immunity decreased gradually to
lose easily in the second and third sets.
In a match of controversy South Africa team succeeded to come
from one set behind Ghana to clinch a 3-1 victory due to the
high performance of the match star Andile Masinga. In the first
set Ghana team made a solid block to control the South African
spikes and the Ghanaian star Casmir Agenegah made it easy to win
the set. Afterwards South Africa controlled the match with the
high performance of the setter Grant Goldschmidt who was
considered the main cause of victory in his coach's opinion.
WOMEN'S COMPETITION
In what is considered as an early final of the women's
competition Dina Yousef and Tahany Toson led Egypt the, current
Africa champions, to a great victory over Kenya 3-1 (25-20,
10-25, 25-20, 25-23) in the most exciting and longest match in
the competition. It was the third victory in raw for Egypt over
their Arch rivals in the last two months as Egypt had two
victories in the African Nations Championship in Nairobi last
August. Egypt led from the start to win the first set 25-20
after high performance of the new emerging star Dina Yousef. In
the second set Kenya used the obvious disturbance in the
Egyptian team to win 25-10 after a group of net actions through
the experienced Kenyan star Dorcas Ndasaba and the young
emerging star Lucy Ghege. After that Egypt regained their
discipline to win two successive sets with their solid block of
Neamat Badawy and the steady performance of Dina and the libero
Sara Talaat and the winger Nagwa Elmasry, who had a severe
sprain ankle during the fourth set.
In a match full of exciting rallies Nigerian women achieved the
same like their men when they dismissed the struggling Cameroon
team, the bronze medalist in the last African Nations
Championship, 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-20). Dorothy Egun and
Chinyere Onuoha of Nigerian team were the stars of the match.
Seychelles pulled off a 3-0 victory over Ghana (25-12, 26-24,
25-23) in a one side game. Yvonne Legaie and Anne Delcy were the
stars of the match with their efficient spikes and solid block
to get the first victory in the tournament leaving Ghana
preparing their bags homewards.
The promising Algerian team had a straight sets victory over
South Africa in a one side game as the winners led all the time
by their highly technical spikers specially Faiza Tsabet and
Nabila Yesri and also the better blockers Lilia Boulouixza and
Dalal Draa.
CGI
