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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters History of handball in Egypt
The Egyptian Handball Federation (EHF) was founded in 1957 and joined the International Handball Federation in 1960. The first official championship to be held in Egypt was the Gezira Cup and Egypt played its first international match versus Yugoslavia in 1960. The latter won 29-17. The EHF then sent its first delegation abroad to participate in Yugoslavia's international trainers school. In 1961, the first Egyptian national team left for Yugoslavia, where it played two matches. Egypt was defeated 18-11 by Romania and 8-3 by Yugoslavia. The same year, Egypt won the Arab Games competition held in Morocco. By the end of the year, the Egyptian national team, trained under the supervision of head coach Mounir Gergeis, played a friendly match in Egypt versus Germany. The Germans won 18-15. In Germany, Egypt played two games, which were again won by the Germans 19-11 and 20-12.
In 1964, the Egyptian national team participated for the first time in its history in the Men's World Handball Championship held in Czechoslovakia. Egypt placed 16. In 1965 in Egypt, the national team retained the second Arab Games' gold medal, as well as the African Championship title in the Congo capital Brazzaville.
They've come a long way: Egypt's first national handball team in 1960. The team's golden age and modern look
In 1968, the Egyptians took part in the International Youth Festival in Bulgaria, where the team came sixth after an 18-15 victory over France.
In 1972, the Egyptian national team participated in the Munich Olympic Games' qualifications held in Tunisia. Trained by head coach Kamal Abdel-Hamid, the team was runner-up to the Tunisian team.
In 1975, the current president of the EHF, Dr Hassan Mustafa, took over as head coach of the national team. The team won first place in the Palestine Cup after beating Kuwait in the final match 16-14.
In 1985, Mustafa was elected president of the EHF. He had one main aim: to take Egyptian handball to the top and lead them to the international level.
The nineties have witnessed the golden age of handball. In June 1991, the Egyptian national team snatched the silver medal at the Mediterranean Games in Athens. In September of the same year, Egypt claimed the African Nations Cup title -- after two decades of absence -- in the championship held in Cairo, thereby ending the North African nations' dominance of the game. A few days afterwards, Egypt also won the gold medal of the All-Africa Games held in Cairo.
In 1993, the Egyptian national juniors team made a remarkable achievement, winning the world championship for the first time in Egyptian history. Egypt was ranked sixth in the world championship in Iceland in 1995. In the Olympic Games of 1996, Egypt was also placed sixth and preserved its standing in the world championship in Japan in 1997.
Egypt has high hopes of winning the world championship title this year in order to combine both the juniors and seniors titles.
