Volleyball Championships: Africa’s representatives promise memorable outing

Africa’s representatives at the fourth-coming U-18 and U-19 Females and Males Volleyball Competition, have promised a memorable outing during the tournament. Nigeria’s male and female teams are to represent the continent during the tournaments, scheduled for Mexico and Iran from this month to September. Speaking on Monday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna, where both teams are presently camping, captains of the two teams promised to make Nigeria and the continent, proud.

Onyegwu Unoma -Verity, captain of the U-18 Female team said they had trained well for the competition and were prepared. “We have camped for over a month and are 100 per cent ready,”.” We are happy with all the teaching and training sessions we had with coaches, and are optimistic of a successful outing,” she said. Captain of the U-19 Males team, Jerry Baba -Kinze re-echoed similar optimism, adding “we are prepared and ready to do our country and Africa, proud.” We emerged tops in Africa and I want to assure Nigerians that we will make them proud.” There is no type of pressure that our team cannot handle because we are experienced; tension will surely come, but with the training we have received, we will overcome it,” he assured.

Also speaking, Head Coach of the Males team, Sani Mohammed -Musa, said that as African champions, they were set to take on the world. “We are African champions back-to-back, so we are targeting to surpass our 2019 record.“We will be leaving the Country on Thursday and for now, our camp is good; no injuries, the players are disciplined, no cases of indiscipline,” he said. Assist Coach for the Females team, Rakiya Mohammed, also said that they were prepared for the competition.

“We are very prepared for this tournament due to support given to us and early camping; remember, we are not only representing Nigeria, but Africa, and we are morally sound,” she said. She said the Chairman ensured they had a standard to set by ensuring the girls were all tall. She added that selection of the players was based on performance at the zonal competition. “Seventy per cent of girls used during the nation’s cup are no longer here; we have groomed taller players that would give us better results,” she said. Also speaking, Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), Musa Nimrod, said he had confidence in the quality of players assembled. “Both teams are going for the world championship; the U-18 players going to Mexico by end of September while U-19 will be going to Iran for world championship on August 19.

“The coaches have put in their best; Sports is not just for Government, as federation we are doing our best to assist the government,” he said. Nimrod explained that currently, the country is leading in Volleyball ranking in Africa, alongside Egypt, followed by Cameroon. “Nigeria is strong and other countries are scared of us in Africa,” he said. He therefore appealed to corporate organisations and public-spirited individuals to come and support the teams.