Egypt’s historic run ends with fourth place at Women’s U-18 Handball World Championship

CAIRO: After their historic run that saw them to the semifinals, Egypt lost 23-19 to Denmark on Sunday in the third-place match at the Women’s U-18 Handball World Championship, held in Romania.

Egypt had to be content with fourth place, but this still created history as they became the first African or Arab team to reach the semifinals of the competition.

The Egyptian team started their campaign with a 27-24 victory over Croatia, before they secured another important win against France by the same score. Victories over South Korea (28-27) and Denmark (23-22) were also among the highlights of their impressive campaign.

Egypt then defeated China 30-29 in the quarterfinals to secure their place in the last four. However, in Friday’s semifinal they lost 27-26 to Spain.

Egypt fought an impressive campaign under coach Mohamed Abdel Karim, who led them to their impressive fourth-place finish.

Former Egyptian handball captain Hussein Zaki told Arab News that all the players had performed exceptionally well during the tournament as they wrote a new chapter in the sporting history of Egypt, Africa, and the Arab world.

He added that a number of players would go on to play for the senior national team.

Zaki said: “The Egyptian women’s national team delivered a strong performance against the reigning world champions (Spain), with their narrow one-goal defeat highlighting the team’s strength and the closely contested nature of the match.”

Saber Hussein, the former Egyptian national team player, told Arab News that women’s handball had witnessed significant development in recent years, and that Egypt now had professional players in European leagues, specifically in France and Hungary.

He added: “The team have played major