Volleyball: 12th Women’s Junior African Nations Championships-Seychelles finish fourth, Egypt retain title |16 September 2008

Seychelles had a chance to stop Egypt from retaining their title but they lost their last match last Friday at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The final score was 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-15) in favour of Egypt, who will represent the African continent at the next Junior Women’s Under-20 World Championships in Mexico City in July 2009.

Seychelles registered just one win, against Senegal in their second match on a 3-1 (25-17, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21) score during the championship.

Other than the loss to Egypt, the Seychelles under-20 team’s other two defeats were against Tunisia 1-3 (14-25, 14-25, 25-23, 9-25) and Kenya 0-3 (22-25, 15-25, 23-25).
Champions Egypt gave some polished performances to brush aside Senegal 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-14), Tunisia 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21), Kenya 3-1 (25-19, 27-29, 25-22, 25-20) and Seychelles 3-1.

Tunisia won 3-1 (25-13, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22) against Kenya on the final day of the championship to finish runners-up, while the hosts took third place and the bronze medal.
Without a win in four games played, Senegal settled for fifth place.

French technical adviser Jean-Michel Roche who returned on Sunday along with spiker Flora Lesperance, whose father has passed away, said the team played well despite not finishing on the medals podium.

“The team went to Kenya on a learning mission and we have achieved the objective. The players played much better than they did during the CJSOI Games and the team’s play improved with every match. The team played tremendously well against Tunisia and Egypt despite losing,” he said.

“But we committed too many unforced errors. The Tunisia team have been together for four years now and they won the African Cadet Championship title two years ago. As for the Egyptians, they are tall and good technically.”

The former French international setter added that it was scandalous Seychelles’ captain Marielle Bonne did not win any individual prize.

“Marielle played extremely well in every department. She was the toast of the team and carried her teammates. According to the organisers, the best players were chosen on the basis of statistics collected during the tournament. We’ve asked for copies of those statistics but until today we haven’t any.

“All the teams’ coaches came to me at the end of the tournament to say that Marielle deserved the MVP (Most Valuable Player) and Best Attacker titles. There’s no doubt about it, she’s the best and was robbed of those two titles. She proved to be a thorn in the other teams’ defence, sending hard smashes into their half of the court.”

In 2006 in Egypt, Seychelles surprised everyone to claim the silver medal behind the hosts. After losing 0-3 (11-25 9-25 16-25) Egypt in their first match, the team, coached by Marie-Ange Bouchereau and her assistant James Camille, won against favourites Tunisia 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 25-22 16-25, 15-13), 2004 runners-up Nigeria 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-20) and 2004 bronze medallists Senegal 3-2 (17-25, 23-25, 25-11, 25-15, 16-14).

G. G.