Women's African Handball Championship 2022-Guebogo: "It's time for Cameroon to break the curse"

Sport News Africa: With the 25th edition of the women's handball African Nations Championship only days away, do you think this is the year Cameroon finally become African champions?

Serge Christian Guebogo: We have given ourselves the means to go all the way. We can't presume to say we will win the trophy straight away. As the competition goes on, we will give the best of ourselves. We hope to go as far as possible in this tournament.

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What has often been missing for the Cameroon national team so far in their bid to win a Women's African Handball Championship?

A certain maturity and a certain self-belief, which we try to build during our preparation. We have lost three finals to Angola. We tell ourselves it might be time to break this curse. Mentally, we are trying to motivate the girls to overcome the immaturity that has often marked us out.

Have you managed to fix these shortcomings?

We will only know during the competition whether they have been fixed or not. We can't tell yet, because we haven't played a match.

"Senegal are the big obstacle in the group. On top of that, they are the host nation. They are one of the most dangerous teams in this competition. We will need to be mentally strong to face them."

How would you assess your preparation?

The preparation covered several aspects and several periods. During the year, we had tournaments such as the Islamic Games, which allowed us to assess our squad, particularly the home-based players. For this African Handball Championship, we brought in our players from the diaspora, which has strengthened the team. We have also worked on aspects we feel are relevant to performance, namely transition play, good defensive organisation and a powerful attack. These points can solve most of the problems we will be set. Through the evaluation matches we played against local teams, we tried to draw some lessons. So we can say we have progressed in these areas.

Are you not worried that the absence of international friendlies could have a negative impact on your squad's performance?

It's true that international friendlies teach you far more than local matches. But we are making do with what we have. When we play local teams who pose us the same problems as international sides, it helps us find solutions to overcome all the difficulties we will meet along the way.

Cameroon are in the same group as Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Senegal. How are you approaching the matches against these three countries?

They are formidable opponents. Ivory Coast is a nation that had very good teams at one time. The country went back to basics to rebuild. And this year, in club competitions, they got the better of us. That nation has really progressed. Madagascar were at the last African Handball Championship, but we don't have much information on them. As for Senegal, they are the big obstacle in the group. And on top of that, they are the host nation. In my view, they are one of the most dangerous nations in this competition. We will need to be mentally strong to face them. We are in a mindset where we don't calculate. We will take it match by match. Every game for us will be a final. Whatever position we end up in, we are required to finish in the top two.

Kigoum WANDJI