The Heliopolis Sporting Club (HSC) organised an event to recognise the Egyptian junior national water polo who won the FINA World Youth Water Polo African Qualifier Champion in February.
The Egyptian team will represent Africa in the FINA World Youth Championships in Budva, Montenegro in August 2016.
The Egyptian National Water Polo junior team includes: Karim Abd Ellah, Amr El-Afandi, and Mohamed El-Behiry, from the Shooting Club; Mazen Kasem from Al-Ahly Sporting Club; Marwan Mohamed, from Zamalek Sports Club. The rest of the team are from HSC, including: Youssef Aly, Abd Allah El-Sherbiny, Karim Loay, Ahmed Ayman, Ahmed Khaled, Seif Hesham.
In competition play, Seif Hesham scored the most goals for the Egyptian team. The Egyptian team played four matches, defeating Zimbabwe, 25-8, in the first match. In the second match against Egypt’s rival, South Africa, Egypt lost, 8-10. In its third match, the Egyptian team continued defeated Zimbabwe, 15-5. In the final match they faced South Africa again, defeating them, 15-11.
Karim Abd Allah told Daily News Egypt that the earlier loss to South Africa came after the team subconsciously took the win for granted, coming out to play without the proper attention.
Ahmed Haroun Touny, the head of the Egyptian delegation to this tournament, attributed the first loss to fatigue. “The Egyptian players were exhausted as they had played two matches in one day, so it lost the second match”.
With the qualifying tournament over, the junior national team has set its sights on the FINA World Youth Championships in Budva. Abd Allah stated that the team hopes to finish within the top eight places close to the top water polo teams in world, including the Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian junior national teams.
Photos by Maydaa El-Nadar
