Egypt men’s sitting volleyball team to Paris

The Egyptian men’s national sitting volleyball team won the gold medal at the African Zone Championship held in Lagos, Nigeria, becoming the first Egyptian Para team to stamp their ticket to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Egypt’s men’s team blanked Morocco 3-0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-16) in the final at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, to win the title for the 10th time and make it to the Paralympics. Egypt also took the silver medal at the World Cup held in Cairo last November 2023.

Ehab Hassanein, president of ParaVolley Africa and the Arab Federation for Disability Sports, sent his greetings to the winning teams in Africa and praised the performance of the sitting volleyball teams in Lagos.

“Egypt have always been pioneers in sitting volleyball since my days as a player. I hope the team will be able to win a medal at the coming Paralympics as they are well prepared for this. I am also very proud of the Rwandan women’s team who were able to qualify from Africa as well. I think that we have growing teams and the performance of our African players is improving. Hope we will be able to attract more countries to our beloved sport, ParaVolley,” Hassanein, who is also an Egyptian Paralympic Committee board member, said.

Hassanein said that at the end of the month Egypt will host the first Afro-Arab men’s club championship in Cairo under the sponsorship of Fahd Al-Fakeer, head of the Arab ParaVolley Committee, and the patronage of Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi “which will be an important event and a good opportunity for all participants to exchange expertise and get in contact with other teams. It also opens the way to attract more players to our sport.”

Rwanda women’s team took the gold medal for the fourth time in their history to qualify for the Paralympics.

Rwanda met a strong challenge from Kenya as the latter had their best performance in the tournament. However, the Rwandans proved in the end to be too much for their rivals in a 3-0 (25-12, 25-14, 25-21) victory in the women’s final.

Egypt had qualified for the final after defeating Algeria 3-0 in the semi-final. The national team obtained the full mark in the first round, defeating Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria by the same 3-0 score.

Mansour Al-Mohammadi, vice-president of ParaVolley Egypt, praised winning the African Championship and qualifying for the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Al-Mohammadi said the Egyptian champions presented “outstanding levels” throughout…