U-20 team picks bronze medal

Nigeria’s U-18 national women’s handball team, yesterday, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, emerged champions of the International Handball Federation’ (IHF) Women’s Trophy Africa Zone Three Championship, but their male counterparts were not so lucky.
 
The girls beat the hosts, Cote d’Ivoire, 37-30, to bag the ticket to represent the zone in the IHF Women’s Trophy Africa Continental Phase later in the year.
 
Their U-20 compatriots, however, fell short in the Junior category yesterday when they lost 28-25 to Burkina Faso in the semifinal. But they finished in third position following their 31-19 victory over the Benin Republic in the bronze medal game.
 
The teams started the competition with commanding victories over Ghana and the Benin Republic in the U-18 and U-20 categories respectively. They later overcame Burkina Faso and Togo with dominant displays to get to the medals stage of the competition.