The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Egypt

  • 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES: ATTF confirms Egypt’s qualification

    The result of the absence of  the Nigeria women team from the just concluded ITTF World Team Championship have started emerging as the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) has confirmed Egypt’s qualification for the women team event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

    Paucity of fund prevented the Nigeria women team from making it to Malaysia and for this reason they are automatically out of the race against Egypt in the continental slot for the women team event.

    At the Malaysia tourney,  the Egyptian  ladies were unbeaten in the group matches and they made it to the quarterfinal stage. But their unbeaten run was halted by Croatia in the quarter-final when the European giant defeated the Dina Meshref-inspired side 3-1 to finish among the top eight teams in Division Two made up of 24 teams. The defeat also punctured the dream of Egypt making it to the Championship Division of the competition.

    “I can confirm to you that Egypt has already got the continental slot for the Women’s Team in Rio following the absence of Nigeria at the ITTF World Team Championship and also taking into consideration that Egyptian Women’s team performance very well to move up by four steps in the world rating. They were ranked 33 following their performance at the 2014 edition in Tokyo, Japan, but their performance in Malaysia has shot them to 29 in the world. With this development, the distance between Egypt and Nigeria is quite far for any team to qualify ahead of the North African team,”ATTF President, Khaled El-Salhy confirmed.

     

  • Egypt beats Nigeria to Olympics slot

    Egypt beats Nigeria to Olympics slot

    • As women team risks demotion

    For being absent from the ongoing ITTF World Team Championship, Egypt may have beaten  the Nigeria women team to the African sole slot of the team event of Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.

    Also, the team will be demoted to the lower division for missing out from the competition holding in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

    The inability of the National Sports Commission (NSC) to provide funds for the team to embark on the trip may have caused this as only the men’s team found themselves to Malaysia.

    Sportinglife learnt yesterday that the women team, who were supposed to be campaigning in Group G alongside India, Portugal, Columbia, Puerto Rico and Croatia were walked over by Portugal in the first round match for failing to show up for the match.

    A visibly sad President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Oshodi said despite efforts by the federation to raise the standard of the game, paucity of fund may have affected their planning.

    Sportinglife also learnt that the male players led by Segun Toriola have to sponsor themselves to be part of the championship as well as to make Nigeria proud.

    Regardless of what Egypt finished at the tournament, the North African country has automatically secured the ticket to represent Africa in the women’s team event of the Rio Olympic Games.

     

  • Paul Bassey: Eagles won’t have beaten Egypt with Oliseh

    Paul Bassey: Eagles won’t have beaten Egypt with Oliseh

    CAF Technical Committee member, Paul Bassey has revealed that ex-Super Eagles head coach, Sunday Oliseh took the right decision to resign because the process that led to his emergence was faulty and that the team won’t have been able to beat the Pharaohs of Egypt with him in charge during the 2017 AFCON qualifier in Kaduna next month.

    Bassey told SportingLife that Oliseh’s appointment didn’t go through due process in the appointment of coaches for the national team as big as Nigeria and that it was bound to fail.

    He said even though Oliseh was a good pundit but that it wasn’t sufficient for him to be handpicked the way it was done to come and manage the Eagles without adequate experience in coaching and that it was a welcome relief that he had to go, to save the country from another AFCON tournament shut out had he stayed.

    “I don’t have any reaction. It was a faulty appointment right from the start. Some of us may be good journalists but not experts in football. Oliseh is a very intelligent young man ;he knew when to take a dive because there was no how, with due respect though, that we could have beaten Egypt with Oliseh in charge,” Bassey told SportingLife.

  • Photo: Buhari back from Egypt

    Photo: Buhari back from Egypt

    President Buhari on arrival from Egypt on Saturday
    President Buhari on arrival from Egypt on Saturday
  • Photo: Buhari in Egypt

    Photo: Buhari in Egypt

    President Buhari at the official opening of Business for Africa, Egypt and the World in Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt. February 20, 2016
    President Buhari at the official opening of Business for Africa, Egypt and the World in Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt. February 20, 2016
  • NIGERIA VS EGYPT: Moses Simon injured

    NIGERIA VS EGYPT: Moses Simon injured

    •Oliseh grows grey hairs

    Super Eagles chief coach, Sunday Oliseh must be growing grey hairs in his base in Belgium, following revelation on Saturday that Nigeria international, Moses Simon was forced out of a Belgian Jupiler League match for champions Genk due to injury.

    However, the severity of the injury has yet to be ascertained as Nigeria prepare to face Egypt in an all-important AFCON 2017 qualifier next month. But it simply means that Oliseh must dig deep into his bag of tricks to replace Simon Moses, if it turns out that he won’t be available for the March 26 cracker against Egypt at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.

    The former Trencin of Slovakia hitman was forced to leave the pitch limping in the 27th minute in Friday’s game when his side beat Mouscron-Peruwelz 2-0. He was replaced with Mbark Boussoufa, who later scored .

    The 20-year-old dashing winger, who has scored two goals in the league this season, only recently signed a new contract with the Belgian club, who are top of the league and on course to successfully defending the league crown they won last season.

  • Ahead of Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Egypt to tour Singapore for Nigeria

    Ahead of Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Egypt to tour Singapore for Nigeria

    To ensure that they beat Nigeria to the sole spot in the team event of the Rio Olympic Games, the Egyptian national team has moved their training camp to Singapore in readiness for the 2016 World Team Championship which serves as qualifiers.

    Aside Omar Assar who is playing in the French elite League alongside Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri, every member of the Egyptian team are at present in Singapore warming up for the World Championship holding this month in Malaysia.

    Africa’s number one female player, Dina Meshref confirmed this, saying that they cannot afford to lose the spot to Nigeria as the West African remains the only stumbling block to the North African team’s ambition.

    “We are now in Singapore and we hope to play in two ITTF World Tours in Hungary and Germany. After this we will return to Singapore to continue training. We had already qualified for players in the singles event and we want to crown it with winning the sole slot in the men and women team events through the world championships in Malaysia. Nigeria is the only team we believe can give us a tough challenge and we don’t want to leave any chance for them,” she said.

    Also to serve as a warning signal for Nigeria, Omar Assar was in fine form against world number four, Germany’s Dimitry Ovtcharov in a  thrilling round of 32 match at the just concluded German Open.

    A very proud Assar said: “I am very proud to be in Berlin playing particularly against the best players in the world. The German Open is a big part of the  preparation for the ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Sudan. Together with the camps and training with Chinese players is one highlight for this week for me,” he said.

    Meanwhile, President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy believes the Malaysia tourney would provide African teams to shape up for the Olympic Games as well as compete for the continent’s sole slot in the team event.

  • AfDB approves $1.5bn loan to Egypt

    AfDB approves $1.5bn loan to Egypt

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $1.5 billion loan to Egypt to be paid out over three years, International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr said on Tuesday.

    The first $500 million of the loan will be disbursed immediately, said Nasr.
    He said the loan would go toward the government’s economic development programme and national projects.

  • Egypt intimidated Siasia’s boys, referees – Eguma

    Egypt intimidated Siasia’s boys, referees – Eguma

    Egypt intimidated Nigeria’s Dream Team VI players and the Match officials on their way to securing a 2-2 draw in the 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations match Wednesday, according to Dolphins FC Manager, Stanley Eguma.

    Nigeria threw away the momentum and a 2-0 first half lead against the young Pharaohs at the Stade Caroline Faye to further delay their qualification to the semifinal of the competition.

    In a chat with footballlive.ng, Eguma stressed that the North Africans employed gamesmanship when it appeared that a place in the 2016 Olympic Games was slipping through their fingers.

    He said: “They ( Egypt) intimidated our players, they used that typical North African tactics on our U-23 ( Dream Team VI). They even rattled the referees with the same tactics and you could tell that decisions soon started going their way because our players were to passive.

    “I have played against North Africans and this is what they do when they need a result and I’m expecting the same thing will happen with Algeria.”

  • Russian plane crashes in Egypt

    Egyptian authorities have confirmed the crash of a Russian plane carrying more than 200 people in the central Sinai Peninsula of the country.

    The office of Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed the crash in a statement on Saturday.

    According to the Civil Aviation ministry, the search and rescue teams have found the site of the crashed Russian passenger plane in the Hassana area, south of Arish, Sinai.

    The ministry said the plane was at an altitude of 9,450m when it vanished from radar screens.

    It was learnt that the pilot of the plane requested clearance for an emergency landing at Cairo airport due to a technical malfunction.