Issue No.588
Sports
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30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Sports |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Beating Russia hands down
The handball team won the Al-Ahram championship, defeating the Russians handily, reports Inas Mazhar
Egypt handball came out of its recent hibernation to take it to the Russian bear, winning 25-18 in the final of the sixth Al-Ahram international championship.
Click to view captionMacedonia took third place for the bronze medal. Romania, a world champion in the 1970s and 1980s, came fourth.
The title was the second for Egypt in the Al-Ahram championship. Russia had won it three times and Spain once.
Al-Ahram International began in 1996 as a warm-up for the national team before the world championships or Olympic Games. This year's world championships are in Portugal in January. What was not in the script, however, was that winning the event could also help rebuild confidence, which Egypt needed after its failure to successfully defend its African nations crown last month.
"It was great to win this championship," Egypt's head coach Mohamed El-Alfi, said. "It came just at the right time after the team's failure in the African cup." El-Alfi, who blamed the loss of the African title to his predecessor, Croatian coach Vlamir Klaitsch, said, "Now all of us, the staff and the players, have regained our self- confidence. Our fans are back. We not only won the title but gave good performances along the way. We managed to beat the giants: Russia, Romania and Macedonia."
The three-day event saw Olympic gold medalists Russia beat Macedonia 33-25 in the opening game while Egypt downed Romania 22- 16.
On the second day, the Russians were made to sweat before getting past Romania 29-26. Egypt as well had its work cut out for it against Macedonia, barely getting by 30-29 in the last seconds of the game.
Meeting for third place on the final day, Macedonia staved off an early Romanian challenge to scrape by 37-36.
The championship showed a marked improvement in the Egyptian goalkeepers who were a porous lot in Morocco in the African Nations Cup. Seeking to plug the netminding leaks, the federation sought the services of Mossad Abbas, formerly of the national team. After just 20 days, it was clear that under Abbas' tutelage, the goalkeepers had pulled their socks up. The fruits of Abbas' labour: Egypt's Ahmed Alaa was named best goalkeeper in the tournament.
Macedonia's Atanasvski Kiril was selected best player and, with 20 goals, Egypt's Hussein Zaki was top scorer.
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