5 teams compete for the continental spots in the World Championship
Cairo, Egypt, December 20, 2008- Five teams will start to compete for World championship slots when they compete in the 2008 Boys Youth African Nations Championship to start at Cairo Stadium Complex on Sunday. The competition will qualify to the 2009 Boys Youth World Championship in Italy through the round robin tournament between the five teams the organizers Egypt, the defending champions Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Burundi.
The opening day will feature two matches as Egypt meets Libya at 18:00 followed by Tunisia vs. Algeria at 20:00. The drawing of lots was attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani, Local organizing committee President and FEVB President Mr. Ali Elsergani, SOC Delgate Mr. Joseph Mokanda, Referee Delgate Mr. Hassan Ahmed and CAVB Technical Director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.
The Tunisian team comes as one of the most favorite teams in the competition due to their good preparation program during the last six months. They played in a local tournament last month with the Tunisian Junior team, Algeria and Kazakhstan, followed by a stoppage time due to the school program. The Tunisian team resumed their preparation since a month through a local camp. The Tunisian coach Lotfi Ben Slimane said that he wants to get a World championship slot and to win the Keep the African championship Tunisian. Tunisia had the record of number of victories at this age category.
The last competition runner up Egypt had a long term preparation through a camp in India last September followed by a camp in the Olympic Center in Cairo and finalized their preparation through some friendly match against Kuwait first team as they played twice against them. Egypt Head coach Reda Elgazali was optimistic to win
the title in presence of a great competitors Tunisia and Algeria. “We prepared the team well for the old date of the competition in September but we tried as far as we can to regain thr rhythm now through the last camp. The Libyan team had a short preparation for a week after
the collection of the players from the different provinces of Libya as the Youth league didn’t start yet in Libya till now.
Algeria comes also as a great favorite owing to the new strategy of the Algerian Federation that gives a special interest to the young teams of both genders. The Algerian coach Abdelhakim Djehiche said that his team was formed since a year and prepared through some friendly matches against the local teams.
The competition will be held in a round robin format between the five participating teams.