
Cairo, Egypt, December 13, 2015 - The Republic of the Congo will host a historic 2016 Men's African Qualification tournament for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, featuring a record number of participating countries.
The qualifiers will take place from January 7 to 14, 2016 with 23 countries competing for an African slot at next year's Summer Games. The teams finishing the tournament in second and third place will get another chance to qualify for the Olympics at the World Olympic qualifiers scheduled to take place in May/June 2016.
Other favourites include Egypt, who finished behind Tunisia in the last qualifiers in Cameroon in 2012. Egypt have qualified for the Olympics on three occasions: in 1984 (Los Angeles), 2000 (Sydney) and 2008 (Beijing).
With a promising team, Algeria will also hope to do well after a 24-year absence from the Olympics since their last participation in Barcelona in 1992. A young Algerian team won gold at the 2015 All Africa Games in the Republic of the Congo earlier this year, ahead of the Olympic Qualification tournament hosts who won silver.
The teams registered to participate in the Men's African Olympic Qualification tournament are: Algeria, Tunisia, Gambia, Cape Verde, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Madagascar and Senegal.
African participation in the Olympic Games
- Tunisia : 6 participations: 1972 (Munich), 1984 (Los Angeles), 1988 (Seoul), 1996 (Atlanta), 2004 (Athens), 2012 (London).
- Egypt : 3 participations : 1984 (Los Angeles), 2000 (Sydney), 2008 (Beijing)
- Algeria : 1 participation : 1992 (Barcelona)
- Libya : 1 participation : 1980 (Moscow)