Can handball be football?

There could not have been a better way to usher in the new year than by the victory of the under-20 Egyptian football team at the African Youth Championships in Burkina Faso.

But once is never enough. The question now is whether the country's handball team can do something similar in the next two weeks in Portugal.

The team is making its fifth appearance in the world championship in the past eight years. In the first, in Iceland in 1995, Egypt finished in sixth place and, as a result, entered the elite top 10 club, a place which had until then been the exclusive preserve of European nations.

Since then, save for the occasional hiccup, Egyptian handball's graph has steadily risen. The country once again came in sixth place in Japan in 1997, tripped up a bit in Cairo in 1999 when it landed in seventh place but in France 2001 jumped to an unprecedented fourth place finish.

The team fell on hard times last year after failing to defend its African title, then finished a dismal seventh in the World Cup in Sweden in October. But in the tournament in Portugal, which began Monday, Egypt hopes to steady itself once more.

The task is daunting. Unlike the newly-crowned young Egyptian footballers, the handball championship is for big boys. And Egypt already has its work cut out for it. It lost its opener against former world champions Sweden and tied with perennial North African rival Algeria.s

In preparation for the championship, Egypt underwent intensive training in three world class handball countries: Yugoslavia, France and Denmark.

Another warm-up for the team came in the way of the 7th Al-Ahram Handball Championship held last month in Cairo and which Egypt won handily. The event was for the first time an all-Arab affair which weakened it considerably. Egypt won its three matches against Qatar, the junior Egyptian team and Saudi Arabia.

Still, the Cairo event was welcomed as useful preparation, especially since team captain Gohar Nabil returned to the line-up after being given the cold shoulder by head coach Yugoslav Zoran Ezanovich. Both are reportedly back on speaking terms after a dispute over playing time. Nabil is one of the world's best pivots and his absence has been felt.

It will take all of Nabil's skill and guile if Egypt is to match its fourth place finish of two years ago. Few expect such success; nobody dares predict Egypt will come away as the tournament's outright winner. That is an achievement already experienced by the younger football cousins. Perhaps another such victory in another sport is asking for too much.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 23 - 29 January 2003 (Issue No. 622)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/622/sp1.htm