African women teams to train in Kenya ahead of Volleyball Championships

Africa's women volleyball teams are scheduled to feature in a four-nation build-up tournament in Nairobi this month ahead of the World Championships in Japan, officials confirmed here Wednesday.

The pre-World Championships tournament in Nairobi will bring together the four African qualifiers to the global event.

The Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) said the African flag carriers to the event -- Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon -- are all set for the build-up tournament in Nairobi next week to gauge their readiness for the November's World Championships in Japan.

The federation said African teams are leaving nothing to chance, as the top teams in the tournament will book their automatic tickets to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games volleyball tournament.

The Kenyan women's national team has represented Africa at the Olympics twice -- 2000 in Sydney, Australia and 2004 in Athens, Greece.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), in collaboration with its continental affiliates (confederations) will stage other Olympic qualifiers in 2007 to fill the Olympic slots.

Thereafter, a special Olympic qualifier tournament will be staged under the auspices of FIVB to fill any slots that may be remaining.

As per the FIVB rules, Kenya and other African bigwigs will fight for a place at the Olympics in the Africa Zonal Olympic qualifiers in 2007.

The east African nation has since named the 22 member provisional national team to the World Championships.

Kenya also hopes to have build-up matches in Cuba or Turkey in August, apart from holding a training camp in Japan two weeks to the World Championships.

Source: Xinhua