Nigeria U21 Beach Volleyball Teams have qualified for next month’s U21 CAVB Championships final.
The finals of the U21 CAVB will be organized from 20th to 24th March, 2019 in Cape Verde.
The Nigeria female team finished second while the male team placed third place after the qualifiers in Ghana.
Nigeria female won two games against Benin Republic (21-17, 21-19) and Ivory Coast (21 -10’ 21- 17) losing to Ghana (21-17, 21-16) while the male team won a game against Benin Republic (21-13, 21-14), losing to Niger Republic (21-16, 21-19) and Ghana (21 -16, 21- 18).
The Head Coach of the U21 teams, Kayode Ajilore said the teams are leaving no stone turned in grabbing one of the tickets for the 2019 World U21 Beach Championships in Germany.
He attributed the shaky start of both teams to the environment where they played.
He said, “I feel responsible, because it is a great assignment given to me by the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) and Nigeria as a whole.
“As a matter of fact, the matches we lost in both male and female were as a result of playing in a new environment different from the one we used to prepare for the tournament. The teams played very close to the sea where the wind was so heavy and the natural beach sand that is quite different from the one we trained on”.
Ajilore called on the volleyball federation to camp the players in any natural beach environment.
He said, “I think the best solution to our problem is to have a permanent place to prepare our beach team in any of the natural beach environment for the players to get acclamatised to the wind and the heavy beach sand”.
He promised on delivering one of the tickets for the 2019 World U21 Beach Volleyball Championships in Germany.
He said, “I want to tell you we emphatically that for the next round, the story will be different and better because we have been able to see some of our weaknesses and strength which we are going to work seriously on them.
“And also for the player, this outing has opened their eyes to many things and has built their confidence which would motivate them to face tougher oppositions in the future championships”.