Sierra Leone will compete in this year’s Zone II Men’s youth and junior tournaments of the International Handball Federation (IHF) Trophy Africa which will take place in Conakry, Guinea from 25 to 29 October 2022.

The tournament will serves as a qualification event for the Continental Phase of the IHF Trophy Africa and already eight (8) teams; Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Gambia, host Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal will battle for a spot to the next round.

In 2018, Sierra Leone competed in the same tournament which was hosted in Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott and featured national teams from Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and hosts Mauritania across two age categories – Junior (born on or after January 1, 1998) and Youth (born on or after January 1, 2000).

Seven teams took part in the junior section and eight in the youth with both competitions featuring two preliminary groups each and the top teams in each qualified to the semi final stage. In the junior competition, Senegal and Mali finished in the top two positions of Preliminary Group A, while Guinea and Cape Verde were the two best teams in Group B. All four teams went straight to the semi-finals with Guinea overcoming Cape Verde and Senegal beating Mali.

In the bronze medal match the following day, Cape Verde were able to take bronze, A beating Mali 30:20, while in the first of two Senegal vs Guinea Gam finals, Senegal easily overcame Guinea 35:24 to win the relay competition and book their ticket through to the continental finals.