Senegal and Guinea take IHF Trophy Africa - Zone II women’s honours

The women’s IHF Trophy Africa - Zone II competition has finished in Nouakchott, Mauritania with Guinea taking the youth title and Senegal the junior crown.

Following the first three days of competition the final two days saw the semi-finals, bronze, finals and placement matches in both competitions, with a variety of close matches and one-sided victories.

On Wednesday (3 April) Gambia beat Mauritania 21:18 in the official 5/6 placement match in the youth competition but stayed in the bottom rank after they failed to present their passports and thus became ineligible to be ranked.

In the semi-finals, a dominant 43:8 victory for Guinea over Mali saw them set up a final against Cape Verde who managed to overturn a 11:14 half-time deficit, to beat Senegal 25:24. The following day (Thursday 4 April), Senegal bounced back from their disappointment to brush aside Mali 43:17 and take bronze, while Guinea won by 15 (44:29) against Cape Verde in a high-scoring final.

In the junior competition, Gambia again won their 5/6 placement match, beating Mali 29:24 but had to settle for sixth spot, while two one-sided semi-finals saw Guinea beat Cape Verde 31:22 and Senegal beat Mauritania 41:11.

The Senegalese went on to win the final, despite Guinea admirably reducing a trail of seven goals at half-time (11:18), but it was not to be enough as Senegal eventually won 30:26. Cape Verde took bronze with a comprehensive 50:15 win over Mauritania.

As is usual during IHF Trophy competitions, educational courses took place in parallel with the matches. IHF Lecturer Yalatima Nanga Coulibaly, in association with the Mauritania Handball Federation, delivered a referee course to the couples’ present, from Benin, Algeria, Gabon, Togo, Libya and Senegal.

The course focussed on the new guidelines amongst other topics with video analyses also conducted using content from the IHF Education Centre. The course ended with a written test.

FINAL RANKING

Youth Competition

1 Guinea

2 Cape Verde

3 Senegal

4 Mali

5 Mauritania

6 Gambia

Junior Competition

1 Senegal

2 Guinea

3 Cape Verde

4 Mauritania

5 Mali

6 Gambia

RESULTS

Thursday 4 April

Youth Competition

Bronze Medal Match: SEN vs MLI 43:17 (17:7)

Final/Gold Medal Match: CPV vs GUI 29:44 (14:24)

Junior Competition

Bronze Medal Match: CPV vs MTN 50:15 (21:10)

Final/Gold Medal Match: GUI vs SEN 26:30 (11:18)

Wednesday 3 April

Youth Competition

5/6 Placement Match: GAM vs MTN 21:18 (13:8)

Semi-Final: SEN vs CPV 24:25 (14:11)

Semi-Final: GUI vs MLI 43:8 (23:4)

Junior Competition

5/6 Placement Match: GAM vs MLI 29:24 (13:19)

Semi-Final: CPV vs GUI 22:31 (11:14)

Semi-Final: SEN vs MTN 41:11 (19:5)

Tuesday 2 April

Youth Competition

CPV vs MLI 24:19 (13:10)

MTN vs GUI 9:39 (5:20)

Junior Competition

CPV vs MLI 43:32 (22:16)

MTN vs GUI 5:27 (3:12)

Monday 1 April

Youth Competition

MTN vs CPV 11:29 (3:10)

GUI vs MLI 42:12 (22:6)

Junior Competition

SEN vs MLI 35:12 (15:6)

MTN vs GAM 21:41 (10:22)

Sunday 31 March

Youth Competition

GAM vs SEN 10:43 (5:22)

MLI vs MTN 17:16 (7:7)

CPV vs GUI 20:33 (7:17)

Junior Competition

CPV vs SEN 28:37 (10:16)

GAM vs GUI 25:30 (8:12)