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By Taziz Hasairi.
Tripoli, 20 March 2014:
Tripoli . . .[restrict]University Futsal team is representing Libya in the 2014 Universities Futsal Championship in Beirut which starts today and last until Monday.
The team which arrived in the Lebanese capital yesterday, was selected from among the various futsal clubs at Libyan universities. After last month’s national victory in the Africa Champions’ Cup, the team is hoping to do the same for futsal, a variant of football played on a smaller, usually artificial pitch. It had gained popularity across the country.
The Tripoli team was selected to go to Beirut because of its performance in the 13th International University Tournament held in Rome last November.
Last year, Sirte University team won the Libyan futsal championship.
Meanwhile, the Northern African Football Youth Championship for under 20-year-olds started in Misrata on Tuesday. There are teams from Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, with Senegal as an honorary guest. According to the Ministry of Sports and Youth website, the Libyan team only returned to the country last Thursday after two weeks of training at a camp at Antalya in Turkey.?
Sports in Libya is not all about football. A host of other games are now making their mark in the country, and with Libyan teams joining in international competitions and events and hoping to strike gold.
Ten days ago saw the national parachute team taking third place in the first African and the fifth Arab parachuting tournaments being held jointly in the Moroccan town of Taroudant. It first time ever that the national parachute team had won an international prize.
They were welcomed back last Thursday by the President of the Libyan Union of Air Sports , Ali Hanish, who congratulated them on their achievement. The joy was tinged with sadness, however, because of the death of the team’s captain, Salem Bu Harrara, in a tragic accident during a team practice jump as part of the parachuting tournament.
Handball is another growing sport. Thirteen Arab teams, including Alitihad and the New Benghazi team are taking part the Arab Handball Championship which opened yesterday in Mahdiya in Tunisia. The two Libyan teams are in the third and fourth groups.
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