Table Tennis

THE EGYPTIAN juniors national team claimed two bronze medals at the Teams' Grand Prix currently taking place in Brazil. Khaled Gamal, Islam Sonbol, Ingy Metwali and Sara Abdel-Aziz won both the boys and girls juniors events.

For the first time in the sport's history, the European Table Tennis Federation has offered four Egyptian under-12 players the opportunity to join the one-week European camp that began in the Czech Republic on 8 September. The offer came as part of the European Federation's effort to nurture a new generation of players, and to break the Asian stranglehold of the game. Egypt's participation in the camp --usually reserved for Europeans -- marks a turning point in the nation's global presence in the table tennis arena. Egyptian players who have joined the camp are: Khaled Asar, Mohamed Shoman, Nadine El- Doltilly and Farah Abdel-Aziz, alongside their head coaches Hussein El-Leithy and Mohamed El-Sharqawi

Volleyball

THE EGYPTIAN Volleyball Federation announced its banning of Al-Ahli player Aiman Roshdi from playing with the national squad, due to his absence from the national team's camp that started on 12 August. The camp is preparation for the African Games next month in Abuja, Nigeria. Having been given a permanent banning, Roshdi submitted a request to retire to his own local club. The request was promptly denied.

Federation officials have accused Roshdi of performing poorly in the final of the 14th African Volleyball Championship, in which the Egyptian team lost to Tunisia in three straight sets -- eliminating Egypt's chances to qualify to the volleyball World Cup in Japan.

Taekwondou

EGYPT'S national taekwondou team will not participate in the World Championship scheduled to be held in Germany. The announcement came after Egypt's Ministry of Youth requested a report from the Taekwondou Federation listing the team's expected results and medals at the World Championship -- a key consideration factor in the issuance of a ministerial decree allowing the national squad to participate in the event. The federation officials refused the request, however, claiming lack of experience of Egypt's second-rank players who were to take part in the event, given that the country's top players were busy preparing for the African Games scheduled to take place a few days before the World Championship.

The country's best players clinched the Men's Arab Taekwondou Championship hosted by Cairo last week, and have now returned to the Olympic Complex in Maadi in preparation for the African Games to be hosted in Nigeria next month.

Basketball

AL-AHLI club failed to sign Senegalese player Ndongo N'daye to its team given his excessive money demands. In preparation for the qualifiers of the African Championship to be held in November, Al-Ahli is searching for an outstanding African or American player to join the team -- a ticket, it hopes, for a guaranteed trophy. Al-Ahli hopes to take the championship from its traditional foe, Zamalek, which has succeeded to sign world-class American player Marcos.