After several days of fierce competition, the 2017 IBSA Goalball African Championships is now history.  African men's and women's champions from Algeria arrived in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt with a goal of retaining their championship titles for another two years.  Algeria succeeded, and in a big way–both teams fought through the entire tournament witout a single loss.

A brief recap of the final tournament day.
 

The first game was the men's bronze medal match betwee Rwanda and Morocco.  In their first encounter, Morocco started with the first goal and Rwanda went on a scoring streak winning that match 10-4.  This time things were a little different.  Both teams fought hard in the first half, sitting at a 4-4 tie at halftime.  In the second half, Morocco kept steady pressure on the Rwadan and at the final buzzer, Morocco took the win and the men's bronze medal with a 10-6 victory.
 

The women's gold medal match was a repeat of the 2016 championships between Algeria and Egypt although this time the game was held on the Egyptian's home turf.  Although the home crowd was clearly behind the Egyptians, this day the Algerians would reign supreme and win the match 12-2, retaining their African championships title for another two years.  Beheta Benallou had a remarkable day, tallying 10 of Algeria's goals.
 

The men's gold medal match was also a repeat of the 2016 championships and the Egyptian men were ready to hand Algeria their first loss.  Again, Algeria couldn't be beat and they soundly defeated Egypt by a 10-1 margin.  Algeria's Samir Bellabouchet also had a remarkable string of 10 goals to drive his team to victory. Benallou and Bellabouchet were the men's and women's scoring champions scoring 40 and 27 goals, respectively.
 

Final Tournament Standings (men):

1. Algeria

2. Egypt

3. Morocco

4. Rwanda

5. Kenya

Final Tournament Standings (women):

1. Algeria

2. Egypt

3. Morocco

Based on their placement, the men's teams from Algeria and Egypt secured berths for the 2018 IBSA World Goalball Championships (Sweden).