CAIRO (Egypt) - The Egyptian women’s national team last reached the Women’s AfroBasket podium close to five decades ago, a statistic Raneem Elgedawy says the current squad is keen to change. As Egypt hosts the FIBA Africa Zone Five Women’s Afrobasket qualifiers from 3 to 8 February at the Hassan Mostafa Arena in Giza, Egypt, the Al Ahly Sporting Club forward believes a perfect run in the six-team competition will be a first step in ending the medal drought that has spanned 48 years. The 2025 Women’s AfroBasket, the 29th edition of the tournament, is set to be held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire with the four highest-placed teams booking a ticket for one of the qualifying tournaments for the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.
“We have some new players ready and excited to make their debut," the 27-year-old told FIBA.basketball. .
"We have been in camp for the last three weeks and preparations are going well. We also have a new coaching staff led by head coach Amr Assem and they have been amazing with the squad. We are playing a very nice system and all the players are excited to retain the [FIBA Africa Zone 5] title at home,” the 1,86m (6ft 1in) said. The two-time regional champions go up against 2021 zone champions Kenya, fast-rising South Sudan, Uganda, who qualified for the 2023 continental showpiece as runners-up from the zone, Tanzania, and Burundi. “It is bound to be a competitive competition having played most of these sides in previous editions. We, however, don’t know what changes they will make to their squads. We are very excited to win this at home and are pushing ourselves to be ready. It will take more than a home advantage to carry the day. We have to play together and have fun while at it,” Elgedawy explained.
While their target is beyond the qualifiers, Elgedawy maintains that it would mean much more to win the zonal event at home. “We want to do this for our friends and family,” she said.
After winning the Zone qualifiers two years ago, the North Africans went on to place ninth, a dip from their sixth-place finish in 2021, their best placing since 1984 when they settled for the same place in an eight-team competition.
“We want to sweep the qualifiers before focusing on the African competition where we want to bring a medal home,” she concluded.
FIBA