Exactly two years ago Egypt lost the four-a-side 2022 IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship final against Brazil at home after they took the South American side to a shoot-out.

Now, in 2024, is it time for the host nation to rise up the medal rankings and take gold in front of their fans?

Coach Wael Aly, who oversaw that silver medal ranking in their debut event, certainly hopes so, but knows it will be tough, starting with their preliminary group which features India, plus four-a-side debutants Chile and Portugal.

“We have to take care – that’s the feeling inside me. No games are easy – all games are very hard, and that means we must be very concentrated from our first match onwards. If we want to go far, we must concentrate and respect all the teams; this is what I tell my players – respect, respect, respect,” said Aly to ihf.info.

“Each year, every country is progressing their game and we are trying to do that. I watched the recent European competitions including the games between Portugal and Spain and they have good talents, some real handball players. Our group is like an Olympic Games group – all the teams have a chance and must be ready for the next round.

“We have information on Portugal, but not on the teams in the other group like the USA, France and Japan but I imagine they will be very, very hard too because the talent is so high.”

At Egypt 2022, the host nation started with three straight wins in the preliminary round, against India (2-0), Slovenia (2-0) and Chile (2-0), before losing what would be their first of two matches against Brazil, 0-2. They ended the first stage with a 2-0 defeat of the Netherlands.

Those results set them up for a final against the South American side and this time it was a much closer affair, the North African side pushing them to a shoot-out.

“The strong teams for me are Portugal, Brazil, France and ourselves, but let’s see what will happen as there are always surprises in a world championship,” said Aly, who was coached and played both Indoor and Beach Handball for Egypt, winning world titles along the way.

“I hope we can achieve first place and take the gold medal. Last time we took silver and it was an amazing atmosphere and world championship. We were very happy, but we all very keen to take gold this time. We can only do that if we don’t make any wrong decisions. I say to my players that their talent can give them everything but if they have no presence of mind when they are shooting, passing, screening or blocking and make mistakes we cannot get first place.”

Egypt began their preparation camp at the beginning of August, based at the host venue, Dr. Hassan Moustafa Hall in 6th of October City. Starting with 16 players – 12 men and four women – based Aly has gradually reduced the squad to 12 with a further male and female player reduced to make it 10 for competition.

With no specialised, solely Wheelchair Handball players or clubs in Egypt currently, Aly and the Egyptian Handball Federation have built on the squad from 2022 and identified players from other wheelchair-adapted sports including volleyball, tennis and basketball.

“It’s hard, but we are trying to make a mix of players and help them learn everything about Handball. The initial target is the chair – if the athlete can use the chair well, it means that it can be very easy for them in Handball,” explained Aly. 

“My philosophy is that Handball is for everyone. We are giving them matches to watch and I am coaching them ‘easy handball’. We start with the idea of giving the players all the information about handball: about how to shoot easy, which place you should take when shooting, for example.

“I do this through showing them examples and by giving them a lot of matches of indoor Handball to watch, from the Olympic Games, World Championship etc. I say to them if they see any ideas in those games then try them out. We progress to showing them how to play this easy Handball, with dribbling, without dribbling and encourage different ideas to do better.

“My assistant coach, who was my captain in 2022, then shows the examples in the wheelchair.”

As Egypt prepare to showcase not only themselves and the sport to their home fans, Aly and the rest of the squad are well aware of what the competition could mean for the sport in the North African country.

“I said to the players that they must try and do the best for their country and themselves, but they must enjoy themselves,” he said. “I hope that this world championship can help with us forming a league between clubs in the future and that Wheelchair Handball can be all-year round in Egypt and not just before a world championship.

“We want our players here to not just play for themselves and for their country, but to play for Wheelchair Handball too, because we want to make a new history for the sport.”

Coach: Wael ALY

Previous appearances: 2022 (4-a-side): 2nd, 2022 (6-a-side): DNQ

Preliminary Group at Egypt 2024: Group B – India, Chile, Portugal, Egypt