Egypt down Algeria
Tunisia continued their winning rhythm with the second victory against the winless Ghana 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-21).
Egypt top the round robin tournament after the Third day with a win- loss ratio of 2-1 but with one more match than Cameroon and Tunisia who came second with 2-0 record.
The winless Ghana came third (0-3) ahead of Algeria (0-2) coming at the bottom of the table. The competition features five teams competing for the African slot at London 2012 Olympic Games with the winner securing a ticket to the Olympic Games.
Egypt beat Algeria 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 26-24)
Egypt regained their pace to beat the battling Algeria 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 26-24) in their third match lasting 64 minutes. It was the second victory for the reigning African champions after losing the opening against their arch rivals. Outside hitter Ahmed Abdelhay and the wing spiker Mohamed Badawy were the key factor for the victory with the experienced setter Ahmed Abdalla as both attacker were the match scorers with 13 points each, while Mahdi Hachemi was Algeria’s scorer (12 pts.)
The Algerian team looked tired after their brave performance against Cameroon in their second day match lasting a record of 147 minutes. Conceding their second defeat of the competition, Algeria is definitely out of the race for the Olympic Games.
Egypt has shown early lead 8-6 and 16-13 before winning the set 25-21. In the second set, it was thought a revival of Algeria who led 7-8. But the second technical time-out set of this, Egypt has taken a slight lead 16-15. This set was however the least offensive of Algeria that tilts 25-19. The third and final set, Algeria clung to the net in the hope 8-6 and 16-15 respectively in the first and second technical time-out. Finally, the vice-champions of the All Africa Games lost the third set 26-24.
Egypt coach Sherif El Shemerly acknowledged “Algeria played a great match. My opinion is that Algeria is a good team. Our players were well prepared for this competition through other competitions in which we participated specially the World Cup and All Arab Games.“
The Algerian coach Kamel Imeloul commented “The formula with five championship team is very restrictive as it only requires a defeat to review its calculations. We lost our two games. Coming here, we had very good intentions. The competition was a different story.”
Tunisia beat Cameroon 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-21)
Tunisia used the least effort to outlast the less experienced Ghana 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-21) in 59 minutes to improve their record to 2-0 as heavy favourites for the Olympic ticket Ghanaians are gaining power and improve their quality of play than their matches against Cameroon and Egypt, Ghana scored 46 points in each of its outputs, but today they improved to 56.
Tunisia promising star Elyes Karamosly was the match scorer with 17 points whereas Seido Ajanko was Ghana’s best (14). In the first set the score was closer 8-7 for Tunisia and it was wider at the second technical timeout of the set 16-13 till Tunisia won narrowly 25-22. In the second set Ghana’s performance decreased to lose 25-13. The third and final set it was a burst of pride as Ghanaians went to 8-7 in the first technical timeout and 16-11, but Tunisia finally rebounded to win 25-21.The fourth day of action will show two exciting face offs as the hosts Cameroon meets Egypt aiming to revenge their defeat in the last year’s African Nations Championship, while Algeria plays Tunisia in another North African derby
Match Schedule and results
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 :
– 1600 h : TUN v EGY 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 29-27, 25-23)
– 1800 h : CMR v GHA 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-12)
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012:
– 1600 h : GHA v EGY 0-3 (21-25, 8-25, 17-25)
– 1800 h : ALG v CMR 2-3 (24-26, 25-19, 22-25, 27-25, 18-20)
Thursday, January 19th, 2012:
– 1600 h : EGY v ALG 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 26-24)
– 1800 h : TUN v GHA 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-21)
Friday, January 20th, 2012 :
– 1600 h : ALG v TUN- 1800 h : CMR v EGYSaturday,
January 21st, 2012 :
– 1400 h : GHA v ALG- 1800 h : TUN v CMR
