Egypt dominated the 21st World Championship for Speedball. From the stands, Ahmed Morsy watched the commanding performance Egyptian speedball players maintained their dominance of the sport, claiming the entire series of gold medals in the World Championship held in Egypt last week. Twenty-two countries participated in the two-day championship which was played in the indoor stadium of the Police Academy and the second day in Nasr City club. The dominant hierarchy in the championship was Egypt, France and Japan since they are the pillars of the International Speedball Federation (FISB) which was founded in 1984 by the three countries. Several other countries have since joined the FISB including Austria, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, the United States, Nigeria and Indonesia. Speedball was founded and introduced to the world in 1961 by Mohamed Lotfi, the former president of the Egyptian Speedball Federation. For those who do not know the first thing about speedball, it is played by one player, or two or four (two against two) and recently the team relay competition was introduced. Hence, there are four types of competitions: mixed relay, supersolo, singles, and doubles. In supersolo, Egyptian players Osman Ali, Khaled Fahmi and Mohamed Emad snatched the first three spots. France came second and Japan third. As for the relay competition, Ahmed Adel, Ali Adel, Naglaa Nagi and Mai Essam collected the gold medals for Egypt. The silver went to France and the bronze was Japanese. The double mix gold medals went to Nabil Adel and Roaa El-Helali from Egypt. France and Japan finished second and third. In the double women, Egypt also came first in the persona of Rawda Tamoum and Norhan Abdel-Salam. Japan came second, leaving third to the French team. As for the double men's event, Egypt's Ahmed Hani and Khaled Hosni got the gold while this time France returned to their traditional second place and Japan third. In single men's, Egypt's Ahmed Fawzi clinched first place, edging Japan while France came third. As for the women's singles, Egypt's Nada Mamdouh got gold. The silver was for France while Japan took third place. "We exported speedball to France in a trade- off sport protocol in which we imported kick- boxing in exchange," Ahmed Lotfi, the president of FISB, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We, as a federation, have had many talks with other countries to publicise speedball but rarely did we find a response since the support of the Egyptian government for us is nearly absent. However, some support has begun to be felt recently." War in Iraq and conflict in Afghanistan and Palestine did not have an effect since each country had a delegation in the championship. Afghanistan had two players in the tournament, one being Zabeeh Allah, 25. "Although we don't have a speedball federation in my country, we are here to participate," Zabeeh Allah told the Weekly. "I participated in the World Championship last year in Japan and the year before in Egypt with my own money and I nearly spent LE6,000 last year," he added. "I am doing my best to found a federation to support us in Afghanistan." Zabeeh Allah finished in fifth place this year and came fourth last year. "Being out of training all the year and training only a week before the championship cannot make me fit enough." The Egyptian players trained throughout Ramadan. "Thanks God, I got the silver medal in supersolo," Khaled Fahmi told the Weekly. "I noticed the rise in the playing level of the Japanese players" who chased France for second place. "It's my first championship as I was the junior team. However, I also noticed the live television coverage which was absent before," Fahmi said. Ahmed Adel, gold medalist, observed something else in this edition of the championship. "I think the increase of the fans attending this year is clear." This was Adel's fifth championship and the fourth world gold medal. He was in the world championship in Japan last year and although it was by most accounts the best organised championship ever, "I think this year we hardly see any differences." Amr Hussein, the president of the Speedball Arab Federation, Hassan Naier, the president of the Egyptian Speedball Federation, Mohamed Abu Zeid, the Sudanese minister of youth and sports, and Al-Ameed Awad, the president of the Jordanian Speedball Federation, were in attendance. However, Sudan did not have a delegation in the championship as there is no federation yet for the sport in the country. "In Sudan, we have a high class team in speedball," said Abu Zeid. "But we are not allowed to participate in the championship since we don't have a federation," he added. "The federation has already been founded and we'll participate in the next world championships in France. "We had speedball in Sudan years ago but with a different name and it remains popular." In the newly introduced competition, each team is composed of four players, each player one different event for 30 seconds. The next player hits the ball while it is moving. The sum of the four scores is the team score. In singles, the game out of 10 points between two players and the match is a best of three or five games. Speedball utilities are only a rubber ball, which is attached to a five-foot-long monofilament nylon cord fastened to a ring that rotates freely around a spool, and a racket. The one-piece rubber ball's special design enables it to travel at speeds nearing 190 km/h and from here the intelligent naming of the game came. The relatively small place requirements of a speedball court and the ease of carrying its utilities make it ideal for indoor, outdoor as well as beach grounds.
