Where did we go?

From Tunisia, Inas Mazhar reports on Egypt's vanishing act at the World Handball Championship

---

The second round of the World Handball Championship ends today with six tough matches. Group sensation Greece meets the Czech Republic, four-time champions Sweden clashes with the world runners-up Germany. Hosts Tunisia, the only African and Arab country remaining in the event, has a tough task against former champions Russia. The defending champions Croatia plays Serbia Montenegro, two-time champion France faces Slovenia while Spain takes on Norway.

Click to view caption

Norway's Frank Loke throws the ball after being pulled down by Egypt's El-Fakharani in their encounter on Saturday

The semi-finals are on Saturday and the final on Sunday.

Egypt will not be among the contenders. After 60 matches in the four preliminary round groups, Egypt was knocked out and finished in 14th place, followed by Iceland, Japan, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Angola, Qatar, Kuwait, Canada and Australia.

Egypt's early bye from the tournament's first round was the first since it began participating at the World Championship back in 1993 in Sweden. In 1995 and 1997 Egypt placed sixth and in 1999 the pharaohs were seventh. They reached a career high of fourth in the World Championship in France 2001.

The fall began in 2003 when the Egyptians finished 15th in Portugal. In Tunisia 2005, they jumped ahead by just one step to 14th.

Egypt played five matches in Group D in Sousse, winning three matches, against Serbia Montenegro 24-22, Brazil 24-20 and Qatar 31-29 and losing two, to Germany 28-25 in the opening match and to Norway 24-19 in the final match of the group's preliminary round.

The Egyptians were supposed to play their best against teams like Qatar and Brazil and work on scoring a high goal difference between them. Egypt was not only supposed to win but win big.

Egypt eventually finished a disappointing fourth in the six-team group. Only the first three teams of each group qualified to the second round. Serbia Montenegro, Germany and Norway made it to the second round.

According to Egypt's head coach Uwe Lommel, youth and inexperience were to blame. "The Norwegians are more experienced than our team. This [against Norway] was an important and decisive game. We made a lot of mistakes and we tried to avoid repeating them during the match. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a way to do so.

"In such critical moments when you're only one goal behind and close to levelling, you need experienced players which we don't have except Hussein Zaki, and you can't always depend on one player; you would lose. Also the goalkeeper Mohamed El-Naquib was very good in the championship but still we can't depend on him alone to give us victory in all our matches," Lommel said.

"It isn't a good result at all in a world championship where you are expected to qualify, but it is a good result for my young team. This team will be better in the next World Championship when they are more experienced."

The results from the preliminary round were a rich source for statisticians.

Russia's Eduard Kokcharov has so far scored the most with 44 goals (including 167m throws) in five matches. The left winger, who plays with reigning Champions League winner Celje Pivovarna Lasko of Slovenia, scored from 80 per cent of his shots.

In second and third places are backcourt players Kristian Kjelling and Hussein Zaki of Egypt.

Zaki who plays for Spain's Real Cuidad is second with 36 goals from 62 shots, a 58 per cent average. Seven goals came from the seven metre zone. Zaki also assisted on nine goals. Norway's Kjelling scored 15/36 goals for a 59 per cent efficiency rate.

Spain's José Maria Rodriguez with 30 assists is the top assist maker ahead of Vitali Ivanov (Russia) and Olafur Stefansson (Iceland) with 28 each.

As for the combined ranking of goals and assists, Slovenia's Siarhei Rutenka (31 goals and 24 assists) is in first place.

Norway's Sindre Walstad is thus far best goalkeeper. The 32-year-old saved 20 out of 40 shots for a 50 per cent average. Russia's Alexey Kostygov (60/124) is in second with a save rate of 48 per cent. However, the successor of the legendary Andrey Lavrov had to leave the court in the final phase of the preliminaries match against Iceland suffering from a severe knee injury.

By the end of the first round, Egypt's goalkeeper Mohamed El-Naquib was the best in saving penalty shots. El-Naquib saved 11 of 13 shots for an 85 per cent rate. El-Naquib placed 18th place in the overall standings of goalkeepers after the first round, saving 46 of 129 shots for a 36 per cent rate.

On the sidelines, Russian referee Dmitrij Frolov was operated on in a Tunis hospital after his Achilles tendon was completely torn. The injury happened late in a game when Frolov was running to keep up with a fast break.

International Handball Federation President Hassan Mustafa and treasurer Miguel Roca visited Frolov in hospital.

Frolov will now spend a few days recovering before making the long journey back home. This was Frolov's first world championship, along with partner Alexander Bashmak.

And a rule change intended for August 2005 has already been applied in Tunis. A whistle from the timekeeper or IHF delegate is to indicate a team time-out or a faulty substitution.