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Teams are ready to
compete for the World Championship Vacancy
Tunis, Tunisia, August 21, 2008- All the participating
teams of the 2008 Men’s Junior African Nations
Championship are ready to compete for the World
Championship berth 24 hours before the start of the
competition here at Sidi Bousaaeed Hall in Tunis,
Tunisia 23 to 30 August 2008.
The defending champions Egypt came to Tunisia by a well
prepared team that spent a successful camp in England
playing with the English National team propagating for
the 2012 Olympic Game. Egypt played 5 matches and won
one and lost 4 of them. The Egyptian youth team played
also against Kuwait first team three matches where they
won two of them before finalizing the preparation with
three matches against the Indian National team. “We hope
to continue the success of the last youth team who
qualified to the 2007 World Championship through winning
the African competition.” Said the Egyptian coach Emad
Nawar.
The last three competitions runner up Tunisia searches
for a new continental victory through a new generation
of players who trained well last month after a
successful camp in Italy where they played the Italian
national team and then they participated in the
friendship tournament which showed 4 strong matches
against Algeria, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Tunisia B team.
Algeria prepared through a friendly tournament in
Kelibia, Tunisia where they won one match and lost
three. The competition showed participation of five
teams; Tunisia A and B teams, Algeria, Kazakhstan and
Hungary. Algeria Head coach Hadj Belgacem is satisfied
with the preparation and the standard of the players.
“We had a long term preparations through collection of
the players weekly. We had many experienced players like
Billal Soualem and Mesaaoud Debbih who have
international experience before with the Youth teams and
played in the World youth championship.
South Africa had a good preparation since 3 month in
local camps that helped the players to enter the
competition atmosphere. The head coach Mabeka Bedi led
the team’s preparation which was concentrated in the
last month for the competition. “Now we are in good
performance to play in this competition and we hope to
win to get the ticket for the World Championship.” He
said.
The 2004 Champions Morocco are searching for a new
victory to be added to the only achievement in this age
category. They had a 10 days camp in Russia playing 6
matches against the Russian youth team and another
tournament in Portugal with Spain, France and Portugal.
“We want to play a good competition and to produce
another successful generation for Morocco first team
like we did in 2004.” Said Morocco coach Mohamed
Abdallaoui.
Cameroon came with a new team that was preparing for 6
months as they played a separate team in the local
league and also in Cameroon cup. They also played any
friendly matches with the first National team.
Botswana collected a team two weeks before the
competition to get experience at the continental level
which will be useful in the coming years to provide more
players to the first National team.
Nigeria prepared through three weeks in a local camp
playing with some first division clubs. The Nigerian
team will be a big contender for the title with the long
experience of the volleyball there.
By Tarek Al Adwar from Tunis, Tunisia
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