2014 YOG: Nigeria Volleyball Targets Exposure

Table Tennis players in action during a national event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, recently.

The national beach vol
leyball team Coach Chakuma Ismail has said participating in the 2014 Youth Olympics Games (YOG) would be an eye-opener for the team’s exposure.
Ismail told newsmen in Abuja that winning was not the focus because it was their first time qualifying for the game.
According to him, a debut in the Olympics will be an eye opener for the teams to be exposed to the new environment and the sand texture used in beach volleyball.
“This is a great achievement to the volleyball family for qualifying for the YOG. We qualified for the first time in the history of this country, which has shown the level of volleyball development in Nigeria.
“It is not the winning that matters in this first outing, rather the exposure, experience and to see the way and manner it’s being played by other nation because the depth of the sand will be different,“ he said.
He said that with this recent development it had shown that the game of volleyball would bring glory to the country in the international scene.
Nigeria male and female teams qualified for the YOG after participating in the African qualifiers held in Accra, Ghana from April 10 to 13.
The coach expressed the hope that camping would commenced in May, adding the National Sports Commission would decide when they would resume camp.
“It will be very good if we start camping early enough to enable us prepare well and give us that confidence needed.
“I am going to use the same players that participated in the qualifiers, I don’t intend to change anyone of them, except based on injury,’’ he added.
The  qualification, Nigeria will join six other African countries to hoist Africa’s flags at the YOG.
The YOG is the youth edition of the Olympics Games with athletes’ age stipulated between 14 and 18 years.
Beach volleyball, which replaced indoor volleyball, is one of the 28 events to be competed for at the YOG billed for China from August 16 to 28.