2006 World Championships   More World Championship news       Tournament info: Tunisia

Tunisia start successfully while South Africa make the first surprise

Tunis, Tunisia, July 28, 2005 – Tunisia made a successful start to the 2006 Men's World Championship African Pool C second round tournament beating their neighbours Morocco in straight sets while the emerging South African team caused the first competition surprise after a 3-1 victory over Algeria on Thursday.

In front of a huge crowd in Palais des sports d'El Menzah hall in the Tunisian capital, the hosts found it easy to go through their opening match against Morocco winning 25-15, 25-13, 25-16. The Tunisian spiker Noureddine Hfaiedh was the star as usual scoring 12 points and finishing as his team's best scorer. He was aided by the strong spikers Hosni Karamosly and Marouane Fehri. The Tunisian block led by Chaker Ghazal was too strong for Morocco through Zakaria Bairi.

For South Africa it was their first big victory against big African competition in their history and their first ever against Algeria as they won 25-22, 25-17, 22-25, 25-18 in 90 minutes of exciting Volleyball. The strong spiker Freedom Chiya was the star scoring 18 points for his team. The highly emerging South African team played a historic match, proving that they are moving quickly towards the continental crowns. Andile Masinga and Thokozani Ntuli were also prominient while the Algerian team were disappointing considering they are as one of the African big forces.