A six-match winning streak saw Egypt write history at the 2024 CAHB African Men’s Handball Championship, as the “Pharaohs” became only the third team in history to win the competition three times in a row, sealing their ninth continental title in emphatic fashion.

Egypt are also the fifth team qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the African powerhouse joining world champions Denmark, hosts France, the Pan American Games winners, Argentina, and Japan, the winner of the Asian Qualification Tournament, in the competition which will take place this summer.

16 teams entered the fray, being divided into four groups of four teams, with the top two placed sides in each group progressing to the knock-out phases. There was no shortage of drama, but four teams – Cape Verde, hosts Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria – progressed with an immaculate record, three wins out of three matches.

Four other teams – DR Congo, Guinea, Morocco and Angola – made it to the quarter-finals with two wins and one loss, as the other eight sides were heading to the President’s Cup, which was eventually won by Nigeria, with a 33:25 win over Cameroon in the Placement Match 9/10.

All four quarter-finals saw lopsided wins by the favourites, with Egypt powering through to the semi-finals with a 37:25 win over Angola, while Tunisia and Algeria each secured 13-goal wins against DR Congo and Guinea respectively. Cape Verde had the toughest match between the four, but they still throttled to a 31:22 win over Morocco.

The semi-finals were more balanced, but Egypt still secured a 30:25 win over Tunisia, in the battle of the most decorated sides in history in the competition, while Algeria returned to the final of the African premium competition after a 10-year wait, with a 32:26 win over Cape Verde.

Egypt, a team with plenty of depth and experience, had no issues to dispose of Algeria in the final, creating a seven-goal lead at the break, 17:10, maintaining the lead until the end, 29:21, in front of emphatic fans in Cairo, which savoured their team’s win at the end of the match, with the ninth title lifted by the “Pharaohs”.

In the bronze medal match, Tunisia clinched the win and the medals with a 35:28 win over Cape Verde.

Egypt are now close to Tunisia as the team with the largest number of wins at the CAHB African Men’s Handball Championship, with nine titles, only one behind the most decorated team in history.

Tunisia, who sealed their 25th medal in 26 editions after winning the bronze against Cape Verde still hold the first position, while Algeria are on the third place, with seven titles and 20 medals in total. The three powerhouses are also the only teams to have won the trophy in the history of the African premium competition.

The top five sides – Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Cape Verde, plus Guinea – made it to the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, clinching their berths for the world handball flagship competition. Guinea are the only side between the five that are earmarked to make their debut at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025.

Egypt are now qualified for the Olympic Games for the eighth time in history, with their best performance coming at Tokyo 2020, when they finished fourth. The Pharaohs will also feature for the third consecutive time in the competition and for the eighth time in the last nine editions of the Olympic Games, making their debut at Barcelona 1992.

The second and third placed teams at the 2024 CAHB African Men’s Handball Championship, Algeria and Tunisia, are heading to the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, where they will aim to finish on one of the top two places in each of the tournaments they play to seal safe passage to Paris 2024.

Photo credit: CAHB