From 17 to
21 December 2016, the Ugandan capital of Kampala will host the Zone VB - Africa
tournament of the IHF Trophy competition. The tournament in Uganda is this
cycle’s last zone tournament in Africa, after which all participants of the
Continental Phase for the IHF Trophy in Africa will be known. Six teams in the
men’s competition and five teams in the women’s tournament will play against
each other to determine which one of them will be joining the six already
qualified teams in the Continental Phase of the final tournament next year.
The men’s
competition will be staged in two groups of three. Kenya, one of the favourites,
will compete alongside Tanzania and Burundi in Group A, while hosts Uganda will
try to see off the challenges of Rwanda and South Sudan in Group B. The top two
teams of each group will then qualify for the semi-finals, while the remaining
teams will play placement matches. Uganda are the defending champions, but they
will have be in top form to defend the title, as Kenya are the next favourites
in line.
The women’s
competition will be played on a round-robin basis and Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania
and South Sudan will play against each other to determine the best team of the
zone. Kenya are the title holders of the women’s competition, but they will
most certainly have a strong opponent in hosts Uganda.
In order to
strengthen the handball legacy in this zone, the IHF will be organising courses
for coaching and refereeing parallel to the competition. Mr Khaled Hammouda
(EGY) will be heading the course for coaching on behalf of the IHF, while Mr
Cherif N’Diaye (SEN) is in charge of refereeing matters.
A full
match schedule can be downloaded by clicking on the link below: