Abuja – May Alaah, the Director, Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB), says Africa is endowed with the basic qualities for beach volleyball, including players natural physique.
“The entire world now has its eyes on Africa because Africa has good strong things; it has the natural features and our athletes are very strong by nature.
“We have the beaches/shores and the sands, and even if you are not a country with beaches, you have the sands somewhere and it is very basic.
“And we are promoting beach volleyball because our players are very strong and we have beautiful beaches and sand,’’ she told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.
Alaah spoke with NAN at the ongoing Continental Cup Women’s finals, a 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics qualifier for women beach volleyball.
The competition began on April 14 and will end on April 17 of April at the Jabi Lakside, Abuja.
She said that the countries participating in the event were the best in Africa based on their rankings which had been in use since inception of the game.
“Beach volleyball started in Africa only six years ago, so, we are using a ranking system which has been developing since that time.
“All we have here are the best countries in Africa based on their ranking from all events that they have been taking part in the past.
“Only one country will represent Africa at the Olympics, that’s when that country emerges winner of the qualifiers,’’ she told NAN.
“So, from the 10 countries, we will play the matches in such a way that it will place all the countries from the winner to the 10 position.
“The winner will go to Olympics, the second and third place winners from each continent will play in another group which is called World Cup.’’
NAN reports that Nigeria, the host, Ghana, Namibia, Morocco, Gambia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Egypt, Mauritius and Sierra Leone are participating in the competition. (NAN)
