With the penultimate match of the preliminary round at the Youth Olympic Games all spots for the semi-finals are confirmed: Defending boys’ champions Egypt did not only qualify for the next stage by a 29:23 against Brazil, but finish on top of group A with an unbeaten record ahead of Norway (also qualified for the semi-finals).

Their respective semi opponents will be decided in the last match of the preliminary round of group B, Slovenia vs. Qatar, later.

The Egyptian win also means that four continents are represented in the four semi-finals on Sunday: Africa (Egypt/boys), Asia (Korea/girls and Qatar/boys), Pan-America (Brazil/girls) and Europe (Russia and Sweden/girls and Norway and Slovenia/boys).

The Brazilian boys will compete with Tunisia in two matches on Sunday and Monday for the positions 5/6.

Boys’ tournament:

Group A:

Egypt – Brazil 29:23 (16:10)

From the beginning until the end the defending Youth Olympic champions were dominant against the South Americans. After the 5:5, Egypt forged ahead easily and backed by a highly strong and movable defence to a 12:6 within only eight minutes. Keeping this margin until the break the match was already pre-decided despite an overall of eleven goals of again brilliant Brazilian top scorer Patrick Toniazzo Lemos.

Boosted by the in total twelve saves of goalkeeper Mohamed Eltayar, Egypt had not been endangered from minute 40 on and after a short Brazilian catch-up chase to 14:18. Latest five straight goals for 23:14 sealed the deal and after the one and only double-figured gap at 29:19, the Africans allowed their competitors some result cosmetic. Best Egyptian scorer was again Ali Refaat by seven goals from eight attempts.