Nigeria emerged the dominant winning force in both the men’s and women’s event of African Handball Confederation (CAHB) Zone Three U-20 Championship which ended in Accra-Ghana at the week-end .

Nigeria beat Benin in both finals played on Friday at the Accra Sports Stadium, to snatch the ticket to participate at the continental championship, where the overall winner will qualify for the global championship scheduled for the Czech Republic in November.

In the men’s event, Nigeria showed class to beat Benin 29-26 to cap an impressive outing at the zonal tournament.

Their female counterparts however failed to seal the game in normal time after a 20-20 tie but atoned for their miss to emerge the victors with a narrow 10-9 score on penalties.

Hosts Ghana took consolation with bronze in the men’s division after accounting for Cote d’Ivoire a closely fought win of 24-23 in the third place playoff.

Burkina Faso also scooped bronze in the women’s category after Niger failed to produce a team for the match after most of their players were ruled out due to injury.

The Zonal championship is a developmental programme set up by CAHB towards the development of the sport on the continent. Other participating countries were Togo and Liberia.**