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

Featured image via KingFut

This month, we discussed a lot of sports achievements by Egyptian athletes in the fields of basketball, judo, and squash. With the approach of August, we have another important announcement in the athletic department. 

Last week was the beginning of the 2019 International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Junior World Championship, the 22nd edition of the tournament, held in Vigo and Pontevedra, Spain, which is scheduled to finish on the 28^th of July. The IHF posted on its official Twitter account, “Egypt defeat France and with that become the first non-European team to top a Junior World Championship preliminary round group since 2009.”

Egypt ???????? defeat France and with that become the first non-European team to top a Junior World Championship preliminary round group since 2009 ????????????#Spain2019 #handtastic pic.twitter.com/TcZWZRy741

— IHF (@ihf_info) July 22, 2019

According to KingFut, Egypt participated in the Handball Junior World Championship after winning the 2018 African Men’s Junior Championship. So far, the valiant Pharaohs managed to top their group (Group B) after winning all of their group stage games against Australia, Nigeria, Sweden, South Korea, and recently France with a score of 37-32 in the final round. Egypt is the first non-European team to do so in this tournament since the Brazilians’ win in 2009! Egypt also came in second behind France on the list of teams with the greatest numbers of goals scored after nailing 188 goals in the first round.

In an interview with IHF, Head Coach, Tarek Sayed Elsayed, said, “We thank God for the performance that we have reached and I’d like to thank the players and technical staff for all the efforts they have done in the last two years to reach this level.” As for Seif Mohamed Elderaa, one of the handball players, he shared some emotional words, “We prepared very well for the match and we are grateful for the coach to have set us up for this match. We did a great job and we played with passion.” When the interviewer asked him about their status as the first non-European team in a decade, Elderaa commented, “I think that is a good story for us that you can dream and believe.” He also commented on the importance of teamwork, believing in themselves, and how their goal was to become a super team, not just a good team.    

According to Egypt Independent, Egypt will be facing Norway in the quarter-finals, following Norway’s defeat of Brazil 29-28 in the sixteenth round.