It may seem that there have not been too many surprises in the African Championships for men and women. The pre-event favorites are through to the semi-finals, generally without major difficulties. But there have still been some close and exciting games, and there is more to come,

The [u]women's[/u] semifinals will be played on Thursday: [u]Angola-Cote d'Ivoire[/u] and [u]Tunisia-Algeria[/u]; Congo did not make it, despite have had a respectable performance in the recent World Championship. Algeria is the newcomer at this level and has played an attractive handball. Angola has played well despite fielding an unusally large number of new players in comparison with recent events.

The [u]men's[/u] semi-finals will be played on Friday. Following an exciting main round match today, where Tunias and Algeria tied 21-21, [u]Tunisia[/u] came out as group winner and gets the presumably easier road to the final, playing the Democratic Rep. of the [u]Congo[/u]. The other semifinal promises to be an emotional affair, between [u]Egypt and Algeria[/u].