Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics volleyball qualifier, which kicks-off Thursday in Cameroon, coach of Nigeria female volleyball national team, Samuel Ajayi, has warned that they are going for one of the tickets to the Games.
The female beach national volleyball team will be contesting for a place in Tokyo at the African qualifiers slated for Accra, Ghana between January 2-6, 2020, while their male counterparts will be in Lome, Togo for their qualifiers to the quadrennial Games between January 9 and 13, 2020. But the female indoor team will battle other African nations between January 2-10, 2020.
Samuel told sportswriters in Kaduna ahead of the team’s departure to Cameroon that with the emerging youthful team and having had a rigorous three weeks preparation in Kaduna, other African volleyball powerhouses should beware as they can only underrate Nigeria at their own risk.
“We have been in camp in Kaduna for the past three weeks in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers to get the team prepared. The players are young, energetic and ready to learn. Though, Egypt, Kenya and Cameroon are African powerhouses, we are going to Cameroon to compete, and any country that underrate Nigeria, do so at their own risk.
“The players are happy and healthy, the condition of camping is good, the federation has done well especially the President, who has done so well. With the level of the players, our preparation, picking players from the grassroots and graduating them from U-17 to the senior team, they would be great for the national team and we would do well this time.”
Team captain, Theresa Okoma, also agreed with her coach that Team Nigeria will do the nation proud by picking one of the Olympics tickets. “With the level of training, and calibre of coaches, we believe we would do our best to pick one of the tickets. I believe in my teammates, and with the preparations, training and confidence in the team, we would do well in Cameroon.”
