The African Cup of Nations, the Continental Championship and Olympic qualification tournament, has reached the final stage. All semi-finalists of the men’s and women’s tournament, played in Rabat, Morocco, are known. Those eight teams fight for one straight ticket to London 2012, the runners-ups of both tournaments qualify for the Olympic Qualification Tournaments.

Women’s tournament:
Angola vs. DR Congo and Algeria vs. Tunisia are the semi-finals in the women’s competition. Defending champion Angola have clearly won their quarter-final against Senegal 41:20 (19:10) same as DR Congo did against Congo (29:19/10:10). Tunisia had some more problems in the duel of the 2011 World Championship participants against Ivory Coast, but in the end took a well-deserved 24:19 (11:7) victory. The closest quarter-final was the Algerian encounter with Cameroon, won by the Algerians 23:22 (11:10).

As Egypt took the ninth place thanks to a dominant 32:12 (15:8) victory in the placement match against host Morocco, Cameroon vs. Ivory Coast and Senegal vs. Congo are the first matches in the round for the places 5-8.


Men’s tournament:
The semi-finals in the men’s competition are only a matter of North African neighbour countries: Egypt will face Algeria, whilst host Morocco play against Tunisia. The quarter-finals saw two clear matches for Egypt (31:19 against Senegal) and Tunisia (26:17 over Cameroon) and two highly close encounters: Algeria beat DR Congo 33:31, whilst Morocco took a 24:22 victory over Angola.

Angola (24:23 winner over Cameroon) and Senegal (33:32 against DR Congo) will fight for the places 5/6, while Cameroon and DR Congo play for the places 7/8.

Gabon took the 11th place after winning 26:20 (5:13) over Burkina Faso, whereas Ivory Coast finished ninth after beating Congo 31:20 (18:10) in the respective placement match.