Nigeria and Morocco Are Going to LA ☀️
Two Olympic places were on offer in Alexandria, one in each draw. Nigeria took the women's on Saturday and Morocco took the men's. Egypt hosted the week and went home without a medal.
Africa had one Olympic place to give away in each draw this week, and it gave both of them away on Saturday, on a beach in Alexandria.
Nigeria's Esther Onyinye Mbah and Pamela Miyoum Bawa won the women's title 21-18, 21-11 over Morocco. Morocco's Zouheir Elgraoui and Soufiane El Gharouti won the men's 21-19, 21-12 over Algeria. Both finals were settled in two sets.
The women's final was a rematch, and the rematch was easier than the original. Mbah and Bawa had already knocked Morocco out on Friday, in a quarterfinal that went the distance.
Nigeria Had Never Had a Beach Pair
Nigeria has been to the Olympic Games in indoor volleyball, but no Nigerian pair had ever reached the beach tournament, per Blueprint's Saturday report from Alexandria. Mbah and Bawa have ended that.
They got there the hard way first. Friday's quarterfinal against Morocco went three sets, 21-17, 15-21, 15-11, and Nigeria had to win a decider to stay in the tournament at all.
A day later the same opponent managed 29 points across the two sets of the final.
In between, Nigeria handled Mozambique's Vanessa Muianga and Ana Sinaportar 21-17, 21-17, winning both sets by the same four points. Three matches against three different countries, and the only one that went to a third set was the first.
Mbah and Bawa played seven sets in Alexandria and won six of them.
Morocco Lost One Final and Won the Other
Morocco put a pair in both finals and came out of the day even. Alexandra Erhart and Nora Nezha Jihane Darrhar lost the women's, Elgraoui and El Gharouti won the men's, and one Olympic place came out of two chances at one.
Elgraoui and El Gharouti had beaten Tunisia's Amine Lengliz and Adem Elmeddeb 21-19, 21-15 in the semifinal. Algeria's Kallouche Mohamed-Islem and Ayyoub Dekkiche reached the final past Angola by two points in each set, 21-19, 21-19.
Then they lost the second set of the final 21-12.
Egypt Finished Fourth at Home
Marwa Abdelhady and Doaa Elghobashy lost the women's semifinal to Morocco in three, 21-17, 16-21, 15-8, and then lost the bronze match to Mozambique in three as well, 21-11, 16-21, 15-12. Both went to a deciding set and Egypt lost both.
Muianga and Sinaportar took that bronze for Mozambique. On the men's side Lengliz and Elmeddeb beat Angola's Carlos Muondo and Eduardo Hélio Albano Afonso 21-18, 21-16 for third.
Egypt hosted the week and goes home without a medal in either draw.
The places belong to the national Olympic committees rather than to the players who won them. FIVB's own wording is that the winners earn their NOCs a quota spot for Los Angeles 2028.
So Mbah and Bawa have won Nigeria a seat at the Olympic Games. Whether they are the two who sit in it gets decided later, and not by them.
