The African Handball Championship is taking place in Egypt after all, reports Inas Mazhar Yesterday, Wednesday 10 February saw the opening of the African Handball Championship in Egypt. That was an achievement in itself for until recently there was uncertainty over whether the country would indeed play host. The Egyptian Handball Federation announced in November 2009 that it would not host the championship because of the participation of Algeria whose fans assaulted Egyptian spectators in Omdurman in Sudan following their World Cup qualifier. The National Sports Council, the governing body of sports in Egypt, was concerned about Algeria's presence in Egypt especially that the rivalry in handball between the two countries is as tough as it is in football. The announcement of the pullout put the African federation in a dilemma since no other African country was ready to stage the tournament with only three months left before its started. Because of the withdrawal, the International Handball Federation and the African federation threatened to ban Egypt from taking part in the World Championships since the African competition is a qualifying event to the world event. Egypt would also be fined. After consultations with the government, it was announced that Egypt would host the event, that it was capable of safeguarding all participants and was sure that the tournament would be incident-free. As such, Cairo Stadium's indoor complex witnessed the opening of the tournament for both men and women. Egypt is playing in the two events. The tournament, which ends 21 February, will be held in three venues: The men's competition will be held at Cairo Stadium's hall 1 & 2 while the women's competition will take place at Al-Nasr Hall in Suez. Twelve countries will take part in the men's competition. They were divided into three groups. Group A includes Tunisia, Congo DR, Nigeria and Libya. Group B comprises Angola, Cameroon, Gabon and Egypt. Group C includes Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, CongoBrazzaville and Algeria. After playing a round-robin preliminary round, the top two teams in each group will go to the second round. The six teams will then be divided into two groups of three teams each. They will again play another round-robin after which the top two teams will qualify for the semi-finals. The first team in Group A will play the second of Group B while the first of Group B will play the second in Group A. The winners will play in the final. The Egyptian men's team is coached by Gamal Shams who was the first to introduce Egyptian handball to the world when he led the national youth team in 1993 to first place in the World Handball Championships which was held in Egypt. In preparation for the African tournament, defending champions Egypt played several friendly games as warm ups against Morocco, Syria and Angola. The Egyptians won all these matches and with a large margin of goal difference. In its quest to win the title, the Egyptian federation summoned Egypt's professional handballers, all of whom play in the UAE: team captain Hussein Zaki who plays in Al-Ain Club, Mahmoud Karam, Al-Nasr, and Mohamed Keshk in Al-Sharka Club. The men's team line-up has Mohamed El-Nakib and El-Sayed Mohamed Hadi (goalkeepers), Mustafa Mohamed, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman (wing right), Belal Awad, Karim El-Said (left wing), Mohamed Ramadan, Hani El-Fakharani, Mahmoud Karam (pivot), Hassan Yosri, Mohamed Alaa (playmakers), Ahmed El-Ahmar, Ahmed Abou El-Fetouh (right back), Mohamed Samir Keshk and Hussein Zaki (left back). Shams has sidelined Zamalek's goalkeeper Karim Hendawi, selected the best shot blocker at the World Junior Championship in Egypt last September. Some other key players will be missed in this edition of the African championship because of injury including Mohamed Abdel-Salam Risha who needs five months to recover from a knee injury. Egypt's biggest rivals Tunisia and Algeria have come fully prepared. They have camped in France and Spain and played several friendly matches against first division teams within a one-month period. Tunisia has won the title more than anone else, seven times. Algeria has six, followed by Egypt's five. Eight teams will take part in the women's competition: Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Cameroon and Algeria comprise Group A whereas Angola, Congo, Congo DR and Egypt play in Group B. All women's matches take place in Suez. A round-robin preliminary round is followed by two teams qualifying to the semi-finals. Angola, the defending champions, is favoured to repeat.
