Africa-Press – Angola. The quartet of teams from Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Senegal begin, this Wednesday, in Luanda, the race for the African place in women’s handball for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in France.
Taking place at the Kilamba Multipurpose Pavilion, a venue that for the second time hosts a continental competition in the category, after the 2016 African Championship, the Pre-Olympic Tournament will define the only team for the event on French soil next year.
The qualification, which the Angolan capital will host until next Saturday, brings together the top four from the last African championship, which took place in the city of Dakar, in November 2022.
In the competition’s debut, at 4 pm, Congo will play against Cameroon, both teams that only managed to have a complete group due to the athletes’ shared arrival.
With a clear balance between the two teams, they are the ones with taller players.
In the poster match, at 6 pm, Angola will face Senegal, being the hosts, who have already had seven consecutive appearances at the Olympic Games, starting with slight favoritism, given their history between them.
The last time they faced each other on Senegalese soil, victory was for the Angolans, 24-21, obtained in extra time after 20-20, in regulation time, favorable 12-10 at half-time.
Angola, with fifteen African titles and seven Olympic appearances, starts with some favoritism, given that Senegal has never won.
With a group featuring names like Isabel Guialo, Natália Bernardo, Albertina Cassoma, Helena Paulo, Azenaide Carlos, in addition to the home advantage, competitive experience could prove to be decisive.
The African Handball Confederation (CAHB) is present with its main structure, with emphasis on its president, Aremou Monsorou, assisted by the vice-president, Angolan Pedro Godinho.
CAHB brought a trio of neutral refereeing pairs to the competition, namely from Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, as a way of safeguarding sporting truth.
At the end of each match, there will be anti-doping tests, and over the six games to be played, there will be a total of fifteen tests available.
The competition comes to Angola for the third time, after 2003 and 2015 respectively. In the last twenty-seven years, only this country represented Africa at the Olympic Games, from Sydney (1996) to Tokyo (2020).
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