Nigeria’s Para-Volleyball teams began their journey to the 2024 Paris Paralympics on a sour note with defeats to Kenya at the African sitting Volleyball Championship holding in Lagos.
The Women’s team opened the championship with a heavy 3 set defeat to Kenya.
The hosts who are making their debut in the women’s category were no match for the experienced Kenyans who led and won every game from start to finish.
The game ended 3-0 (25-15, 25-6, 21-15).
The girls will continue the tournament against Rwanda on Tuesday by 4pm local time as they look to salvage a point from the tournament.
Despite the loss, Coach of the women’s team, Bridget Anu, is impressed with her girls.
Coach Anu said “they have not attended any international tournament before, I am impressed. I was even thinking they will not receive any ball or even serve across the net. For them to even serve across and even play on court I commend the girls and I know that it can only get better. This is their first time they have not played any international tournament so I want to believe that gradually as the time goes we will keep picking up until we get better”.
The Nigerian men were better off against the Kenyans losing 3-2.
The East Africans ran to an early set win (25-22, 25-13) before Nigeria rallied back from two sets down to tie the game.
The dead rubber game (last set) saw Kenya hold their ground against the hosts to win 15-12 points.
The men’s team will hope to bounce back with a win against Morocco on Tuesday by 10:15am local time.
In the other fixture on Tuesday, Egypt will tackle Morocco.
2024 PARIS PARALYMPICS TICKETS
Two teams, one male and one female, will pick the ticket from the tournament to represent Africa in the forthcoming 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Egypt have already secured a Paralympic berth when they finished second at the 2023 Sitting Volleyball World Cup in November last year, and Nigeria’s Para Volleyball president, Olukayode Ladele, is optimistic a Nigerian team will clinch a ticket.
Mr Ladele said it will be a worthy achievement if Nigeria wins the tournament the first time they are hosting.
He said “ we are making history by hosting a tournament for a game that was introduced to Nigeria a couple of years ago. We are optimistic that our male and female teams will pick the ticket to the Paralympic games in the summer this year.
Hosting this championship, shows that we are on the right path and doing the right thing, because if we win, this will be the first sitting volleyball team that will represent Nigeria in the Paralympics”.
The championship which began on Monday 29 will end on February 3, 2024.
VON