The Sierra Leone National Handball team, in their first international outing, was defeated by their Nigerian counterparts on Monday by 46-12 goals.
The Nigerian side was well-composed; and with soaring confidence and rapturous home support, they were able to trash the Sierra Leonean side with remarkably ease.
In playing the last match of the preliminary round, the Ghanaian side again whooped the Sierra Leone handball team by a shocking 44-23 goals defeat; leaving Sierra Leone to struggle with the Gambia for rear position.
No doubt the outrageously poor performance of Sierra Leone leaves the team no option but to play the Gambia in the losers’ classification final to determine the fifth and sixth position.
Nigeria and Cameroon have picked the first semi final tickets from the two groups at the ongoing Championship taking place at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Indoor Sports Hall, Kaduna.
The Nigerian team playing in Group B defeated the Ghanaian national handball team 37-23 in a keenly contested match, which started with a pedestrian pace but built up to a feverish one.
The game resurrected the age long rivalry between the two sides with Ghana leading for most of the first quarter before Nigeria took the initiative to lead the first half 16-15. However, the second half started more businesslike with a blistering pace that saw Nigeria increase the gap rapidly between them and their rivals from one point to eight and in the last sixth 14.
The Cameroon handball team playing in Group A defeated Team Kaduna 33 to 23 points in the first match of the six-day Commonwealth tourney. The Cameroonians also won their second match against Gambia by 47-6 to win the group and emerge as the first semi finalists in their group.
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