The 34th African Club Volleyball Championships in Tunisia ended with a bitter taste for the hosts as their favourites Esperance lost 3-1 (25-19, 24-26, 25-18, 25-19) to Al Ahly. This win marked the 11th title for the Egyptian powerhouse, and with 11 gold and 5 silver medals Ahly increased its lead in the African Club Championships all-time standings to 5 more golds than the second placed CS Sfaxien. The victory also allows Ahly to take part in the World Club Championships this October in Brazil. Their Tunisian opponents in the final added one silver medal to their previous collection of 4 golds and 1 silver in the Championships.

Although the Egyptian side didn’t ease through the final comfortably, apart from the tight second set you couldn’t say that there was any stiff opposition from the de facto hosts either. In all three sets won, Ahly were in charge from the start, not giving any chance to the other team to claw back to the top. Esperance’s coach made some crucial substitutions during the second set which surprised the opposition and awarded his team with the equaliser. However, Ahly adapted to the changes in Esperance’s team in the third, regained their focus and slowly but surely got the grip of the match.

The opposite of the winning side Ahmed Kotb finished as the game’s top scorer with 26 points and was eventually given the competition’s most valuable player award. For the Tunisians, Hechem Kaabi had the highest score of 11 points.

A small consolation for the hosts was the 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-21) victory of their team Etoile Sportive du Sahel against the Egyptians Somoha for the bronze medal match. This was, in a sense, also the hosts’ mini-revenge for the disappointing outcome of the final.

The tournament’s final rankings are as follows:

1. Al Ahly (Egypt)
2. Esperance (Tunisia)
3. Etoile Sportive du Sahel (Tunisia)
4. Somoha (Egypt)
5. Zamalek (Egypt)
6. Bourj Bouaririj (Algeria)
7. Ittihad Tangier (Morocco)
8. Setif (Algeria)
9. FAR (Morocco)
10. Ahly Beni Ghazi (Libya)
11. Swehli (Libya)
12. Prisons (Kenya)
13. GSU (Kenya)
14. Espoir Congo RD)
15. Autoridade (Mozambique)
16. AS Douanes (Burkina Faso)
17. FAP (Cameroon)
18. APR (Rwanda)
19. KAVC (Uganda)
20. Support United (Zimbabwe)
21. Al Nahda (Sudan)
22. Nemostars (Uganda)
23. Daim Hamad (Sudan)
24. Atletico (Cape Verde)

The standings clearly indicate the imbalance of the competition. We already wrote about the dominance of the North African clubs and this is now demonstrated by the fact that the highest ranked team from outside North Africa is Prisons (Kenya) in 12th position. What is more, there is a clear hierarchy of merit within the North African clubs, with the teams from Egypt and Tunisia taking the top 5 spots, followed by teams from Morocco and Algeria, while the places from 10th to 14th belong to Libyan and Kenyan clubs.

Photo Source: cavb.org

Click Here: los jaguares argentina