SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - In just two weeks, Egypt moved from a disappointing 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup campaign to keeping its Olympic dream alive.

The North Africans' first appearance on the world stage in two decades resulted in defeats to the host nation Spain, Brazil, France, Iran and Serbia.

Meanwhile, Egypt's head coach Amr Aboul Kheir and his group of players left Granada, where they played the Group Phase, feeling that the Spain 2014 had to be a positive experience somehow.

This past weekend, the Pharaohs opened their AfroBasket 2015 qualification race - which is due to last a week - with a significant 79-63 triumph over Rwanda in the Ugandan capital city of Kampala.

The Egyptians are clearly the strongest team in the FIBA Africa Zone 5 qualifier tournament, which is expected to gather Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania.

Although Egypt finished second at AfroBasket 2013, new FIBA Africa ruling only guarantees direct qualification for next year's AfroBasket to winners and the host country.

Tunisia, as hosts, and Angola, as the African champions, are automatically qualified for AfroBasket 2015.

The question now is: Can Egypt become the first national team to join them through qualification?

Kampala is just one of the battles the Egyptians have to overcome in order to reach Tunisia, before setting eyes on the 2016 Rio Games.

The Egyptians have often stated that the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is the goal they need to confirm the reinvention of their basketball programmes, which has undergone decades of stagnation. 

Coach Aboul Kheir and his "army" succeeded on Day 1 of their qualifier by beating Rwanda. Nevertheless, there are still a few more challenges to face as they will have to overcome a group of East African national teams eager to emerge from anonymity.

A year ago, in Dar es Salaam, Egypt were crowned FIBA Africa 5 champions without giving their opponents much of a chance.

Things might be different according to Rwanda head coach Moise Mutokambali.

"Our ambition is to win the title and qualify for the AfroBasket Finals for a fifth consecutive time. I have a solid and confident team, which believes in winning," said the man who led Rwanda at last year's edition of the AfroBasket held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

"We have had enough time to prepare and I hope we can go there and do what we are really capable of. We've worked on our defense where I felt was our weak point."

In the next few months Senegal, who finished third in Abidjan in 2013, will join a number of the African countries in the qualification battle to grab one of the places on offer for FIBA Africa’s flagship tournament, a qualifier tournament for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The timing of Zone 5 organising its qualifying event now could not be any better, especially as it matches the interest of local federations as well as players. Meanwhile, the same cannot be said about qualifiers scheduled for later dates when some key Europe or US-based players will be in the middle of their clubs' seasons.

If Egypt passes the Kampala test, coach Aboul Kheir will have almost a year to plan Tunisia 2015.

Julio Chitunda

FIBA

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