Egypt begin African Nations Championship preparations

The Egyptian players start the preparation to the 2011 African Nations Championship

17 June 2011

  Cairo, Egypt, June 16, 2011 - The Egyptian men’s volleyball team began its preparation for the 2011 Men’s African Nations Championship, set to be held in Morocco in September, on Thursday with the side attending their first training camp at the Olympic center in Cairo, Egypt.

Coach Sherif El Shemerly selected a preliminary squad of 21 players who will train daily ahead of the Olympic Test Event London, Great Britain from July 20 to 24.

The pre Olympic test tournament will feature Brazil, USA, Mexico, Serbia, Great Britain and Egypt.

The champions from the last three African Championships will then participate in another tournament in Qatar from August 13 to 26 alongside the hosts, Iran and a team among India, Thailand or Slovenia.

The last part of the preparation will be a camp in Spain where the team will play friendly match against some of the Spanish teams in Almeria.

The selected list include Abdalla Ahmed, Ashraf Aboul Hassan, Hossam Youssef (setters), Ahmed Salah, Ahmed Kotb, Reda Heikal, Mohamed Gabal (opposites), Abdelatif Othman, Rashsd Shebl, Mohamed El Sayed, Mohamed Ketat, Ahmed Mosaad (centers), Mohamed Abdelmoneim, Saleh Fathy, Ahmed Youssef, Mahmoud Raouf, Mohamed Moustafa, Mohamed El Hossini, Mahmoud Mansour (attackers), Wael El Aidy and Mohamed Meawad (libero).

Egypt is considered as one of the big favorites to win the 2011 African Nations Championship as they have five titles to their name including the last three editions in Egypt 2005, South Africa 2007 and Morocco 2009.