Egypt Gains Bronze at 23rd of ANBC

By Maydaa Abou El Nadar

CAIRO, Nov. 17 (SEE) - Egypt won over Bahrain to collect the bronze medal at the 23rd edition of the Arab Nations Basketball Championship (ANBC) that concluded its events on Friday. Egypt defeated Bahrain by a score of 84-72.

Egyptian national team consisted of twelve players: Ahmed Adel, Ibrahim Algammal, Ahmed Omara, Waleed Abdel Gawad, Amr Tarek, Ahmed Khalaf, Ramy Ibrahim, Ibrahim Khaled, Yusuf Shusha, Anas Osama, Ayman Shawkat, and Basem El Lethi.

The 2018's ANBC kicked off on 7 November at the Cairo International Stadium, Egypt. In addition to Egypt and Bahrain, the following teams competed: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

Final match took place between Algeria and Saudi Arabia. The former beat the later by 85-81.

Saudi team's trainer Ali Al Sanhani told SEE "In February, May, and September, we played first, second, and the third phase, respectively, qualifying to Asia Cup. So we are always training," adding that "Before this tournament, we only trained for 6 days. Now we are getting ready for the rest of the Asia Cup 2019's qualifications."

This is the second time for Saudi Arabia to win this championship. The first time was in 1997 when the championship took place in Beirut, Lebanon. Saudi Arabia was the runner-up of the 1978's tournament that was held in Cairo, Egypt.

In 2005, the Saudi city of Riyadh hosted the tournament. Algeria won the 2005's edition. It was the runner-up in 1981, 1994, 2000, and 2015.

Egyptian team won the ANBC’s most editions. It claimed the 1st edition’s title in 1974, celebrated in Baghdad, Iraq. It was also the champion in 1978, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2010, 2015, and 2017. In 2007 and 2009, Egypt’s team was the runner-up.

Video for the event's last day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m_M0wnxO8s&feature=youtu.be