Federation To Motivate Women U-20 Volleyball Team

The Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) has said in Abuja that plans were being made to ensure that the country performs well at the forthcoming Women’s U-20 World Championship.

The first Vice-President of the Federation and member of the Organising Committee of the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB), Dr Ebenezer Morakinyo,  disclosed this in an interview with Tidesports in Abuja.

The championship is scheduled to hold in Czech Republic from June 21 to 30.

Morakinyo said that efforts were ongoing to make sure that Nigeria returned to the top of the sport with a new generation of players.

“What we are doing now is to look for young players to add to the already existing ones. As for those already in the squad, we plan to retain them.

“We are also going to organise friendly matches for the team so that the players can gain experience before the championship.

“You must be aware that we recently employed the services of a Russian Coach, who has just spent a few weeks with the girls.

The Nigerian team performed poorly at the just concluded 14th African Nations Junior Women Volleyball Championship in Abuja.

The team lost its two matches at the championship, which served as the qualifier for the 17th Women’s U-20 World Championship.

Nigeria had lost 1-3 to Algeria in its first match on Wednesday and 0-3 to Egypt on Thursday in its final game at the qualifiers, which ended on Friday.

Because of this, Nigeria finished last on the table, with Egypt and Algeria in the top two positions.

Teams from Tunisia, Kenya, Rwanda and DR Congo that were supposed to participate in the championship failed to show up.

Morakinyo said the financial situation of most African nations affected the championship, adding “we were supposed to have seven teams competing in the championship but only three participated’’.

“The four countries backed out because they did not have enough financial resources to take part in the championship,’’ he said.

The vice-president also explained that the affected countries might have been unable to cope financially due to the fact that they participated in championships held earlier in the year.