The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Featured image: IHF

Less than a month ago, we wrote a piece about the 2019 International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Junior World Championship, where Egypt had defeated France, becoming the first non-European team to top a Junior World Championship preliminary round group since 2009. Fans were undoubtedly sad when the team did not make it to the finals, but things have turned around pretty quickly since then.

Yesterday, at the 8^th edition of the 2019 Men’s Youth World Handball Championship, also known as the VIII IHF Men’s Youth (U19) World Championship, Egypt redeemed its honour when our team of warriors defeated Portugal in the semi-finals. The tournament commenced on the 6^th of August in North Macedonia and is scheduled to finish today, when Egypt and Germany will face off on the field for the final round.

Egypt’s previous best in the Youth World Championship was fifth place, in 2007 and 2011. Considering that the competition takes place every two years and was founded quite recently, in 2005 to be exact, the team of young Pharaohs have come quite a long way in a short period of time, and will go even further when they do their best today and tear up the court. 

For those who didn’t see the result, Egypt beat Portugal 41:36 and you can read more about the game in full on the IHF’s website. As a quick summary though, Ahram Online states that Portugal dominated the opening quarter, but Egypt stormed back to grab a 20-19 lead at halftime before the young Pharaohs eventually widened the gap and won through for their triumphant victory. 

The site’s synopsis concludes with a recognition of the player of the match, Ahmed Hesham Elsayed. Way to go!