8th ALL
AFRICA GAMES- COMPETITION DAY ONE:
EGYPT MEN AND WOMEN WON CRUCIAL MATCHES
Abuja, Nigeria, October 11-: Egypt men and women teams were the
stars of the opening day of volleyball competition of the eighth
All Africa Games here in Abuja, Nigeria as both won their
crucial match against the favorites Cameroon men and Algeria
women respectively. Nigeria men team aided by the biggest number
of spectators clinched an easy victory over Senegal in straight
sets.
SOUTH AFRICA- MOZAMBIQUE
In women's competition South Africa women started their way by
clinching the 3-1 victory over Mozambique (25-21, 25-21, 15-25,
25-20) in 105 minutes.
South Africa made it easy to win the first set after perfect
spikes of the winger Riefkah Ismail and her colleague Benita
Pocock using the weak back line defense to lead 8-6 in the first
technical time out, and then they continued their lead to win
the first set 25-21. The second set went the same as South
Africa continued leading by their active spikes against the weak
block of Mozambique players to win the set 25-20. In the third
set Mozambique improved they net and back line defense to win
easily 25-15 in the shortest set of the match. South Africa
regained the rhythm to win the last set 25- as the best player
of the match Riefkah regain her performance.
EGYPT- ALGERIA
In an exciting match, Egypt pulled off a straight sets victory
over Algeria (27-25, 25-21, 25-22) to insure that they are the
most favorite to the gold.
Egypt women led from the start by their perfect spikes of Tahani
Toson and Dina Yousef to lead 8-3 and then Algeria deployed
their solid block by Lydia Oulmou and increased their active
spikes by the net through Faiza Tsabet to narrow the point
deficit till they drew 24-24 then Egypt won the set 27-25.
The second set showed a good block from the Egyptian Neamat
Badawy to allow Egypt to continue leading despite the good
defense of the Algerian players to win the set 25-21. In the
third set, Algerian players did their best to save the match as
both Lydia and Faiza made their work by efficient hits to lead
8-6 and 16-12, but Egyptian coach Hesham Badrawy pushed Sherehan
Abdelkader and Mona Adly from the bench to lead Egypt to win the
set 25-22.
ALGERIA- SOUTH AFRICA
Algeria men clinched a 3-1 victory over South Africa (25-20,
21-25, 25-19, 25-22) in a match proved that the South African
volleyball is progressing.
Algeria succeeded to end the first set by their solid block of
Mehdi Hachemi and Hedroug Nassim to end the set 25-20. South
African team improved in the second set to lead from the start
owing to the hits of their star Webster Hlabathi to win 25-21
after exciting attacking volleyball. Algeria regained the rhythm
in the third and fourth sets after they deployed an effective
solid block and back line defense to win 25-19 and 25-22.
SEYCHELLES- RWANDA
In a match between two teams searching for a place in the top
African volleyball Seychelles team claimed a 3-1 victory over
struggling Rwanda (25-19, 24-26, 25-21, 25-16). Seychelles team
started the match with a powerful block and back line defense to
win the first set after good performance of Guylly Bijoux and
Jean-Paul Kong in 20 minutes. Rwanda team reached the top in the
second set to win after they deployed solid block. Then again
Seychelles led to win both the third and the fourth sets after
perfect hits of both star players Bijoux and Kong.
NIGERIA- SENEGAL
In presence of the maximum number of spectators in the opening
day of the competition, the host team Nigeria had a stunning
victory over Senegal in straight sets (25-18, 25-14, 25-15) in
an hour. Nigeria led by the French based professional player
Thomas Aroko all through the match. He was the match scorer and
succeeded to provide his team with a good attack and defense by
the net with his teammate Adamu Jonah.
EGYPT- CAMEROON
In what was considered a match between the most two favorite
teams Egypt men dismissed Cameroon 3-1 (22-25, 25-13, 25-20,
25-20) in the most interesting match of the opening day.
Egyptian wing spiker Hamdy Elsafy led his team with his perfect
spikes and the solid block of Mahmoud Hassona to recover after
Cameroon won the first set to gain three successive sets.
Cameroon team was in his best form in the first set when
Christian Meva made it hard for the Egyptian to control his
solid hits.
CGI
