Egypt coach Grzegorz Rys (left) and team manager Adel Kamel prepare all the details for their team's preliminary inquiry meeting at the Baja California High Performance Centre in Tijuana, Mexico.
Tijuana, Mexico, September 10, 2015 - After coaching the United Arab Emirates team from 2012 to 2014, Grzegorz Rys is now in charge of the Egypt team at the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship in Mexico.
Just a few weeks ago, he was at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U23 World Championship with the Egypt team which finished ninth. Some of the players on that team have also made the trip to northern Mexico for a training camp organised ahead of the beginning of the U21 World Championship.
“It was very important for us to come here before [the tournament] to adapt,” said Rys, after ending the one week training camp at the Baja California High Performance Centre.
“I am very pleased about the training camp, because we did our best and also I hope we adapted well for the tournament.”
The Egyptian players played a series of friendly matches and held fitness sessions with some of the other national teams present in Tijuana, including Canada, China, Japan, Italy and World Championship hosts Mexico.
“Now we are very familiar with the competition hall,” Rys added. “It is a very nice hall and everything has been organised very well as we have prepared here. We are ready to begin with our first match.”
Egypt will play against Mexico on Friday after the opening ceremony. Some players like Ahmed Saleh and Abdelrahman Abouelella have played in the Baja California region before, participating in the U19 World Championship organised here two years ago.
Egypt also played Mexico in July 2013 in Mexicali and finished with a victory in four sets 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-18, 29-27). Mohamed Ellakany was the team's head coach at the time.