Tunisia start World Championship preparations without injured stars
07/06/2006
Tunis, Tunisia, July 3, 2006 -- Tunisia's national men's team will begin their preparations for the World Championship with a local training camp this weekend.
This will be followed by their participation in a three-nation tournament in Italy from July 10-14, the other team being Iran. All three teams -- Italy, Tunisia and Iran -- will compete in the men's World Championship, which will take place in Japan from November 17 to December 3.
Tunisia, who have won the continental championship more times than any other African rival, will be missing two of their most experienced players, Noureddine Hfaiedh and Chaker Ghazal, due to injury. Hfaiedh is negotiating to join a Japanese club after playing for Tour in France last season.
Wing spiker Hosni Karamosly and setter Ghazi Guidara will form the nucleus of the team.
The provisional squad of 14 includes four newcomers -- Ayman Breek, Saif Hamam, Hesham Elkaabi and Mohamed Ben Soliman -- as Italian head coach Jiacobe Antonio wants to inject new blood after Tunisia lost the continental title to Egypt at the 2005 African Nations Championship in Cairo last September. Egypt have also qualified for the men's World Championship.
After the three-nation tournament in Italy, Tunisia will compete in another competition in Canada in September before leaving for Korea for the final part of their preparations for the World Championship in Japan.
Wing spiker Hosni Karamosly will be a key figure for Tunisia.
