Kenya beach volleyball team qualifies for World Championships
Kenya's Brackcides Khadambi digs the ball in their women's preliminary beach volleyball pool D match against the USA during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Shiokaze Park in Tokyo on July 29, 2021.
What you need to know:
- Africa will be represented at the World Championships by the top four ranked teams namely Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Mozambique
- It remains to be seen which combination Kenya will settle on for the World Championships with Too, Makokha, Prackcides Agala and Veronica Adhiambo all in contention
- Each participating country is required to field only one pair for the global competition
It's double blessings for the national women's beach volleyball team after they Friday qualifed for the FIVB World Championships scheduled for June 10 to 19.
The team, who last month qualified for the Commonwealth Games slated from July 28 to August 8 through FIVB rankings, will also participate in the World Championships in Rome, Italy.
According to a letter from Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) dated April 21, Africa will be represented at the World Championships by the top four ranked teams namely Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Mozambique.
CAVB considered the latest FIVB rankings in making the decision since they could not organise a qualification tournament due to limited time.
"The FIVB requested all Confederations to submit their qualification pathway for the FIVB Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships to be held from the 10th to 19th of June 2022 in Rome, Italy. As we could not organise a qualification tournament within the qualification window we submitted a qualification pathway which was within the FIVB guidelines. The FIVB approved our proposal," read the letter in part.
"Based on the above pathway we computed all points accumulated and drew up a
ranking table based on the qualification pathway above. Furthermore, after the ranking
we conducted an eligibility assessment of all teams to ensure they conform to the FIVB
eligibility requirements."
"This allowed us to determine the 4 teams that would represent Africa at the FIVB Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships and the reserve teams in order or ranking that would replace any qualified team that would have not taken up their slot."
This will be the second time Kenya will be participating at the World Championships since 2017 when the pair of Naomi Too and Gaudencia Makokha represented the country in Vienna, Austria.
It remains to be seen which combination Kenya will settle on for the World Championships with Too, Makokha, Yvonne Wavinya, Phosca Kasisi, Brackcides Agala and Veronica Adhiambo all in contention.
Each participating country is required to field only one pair for the global competition.
The pair of Too and Adhiambo finished third in the Commonwealth Games qualifiers last month in Accra, Ghana while Agala and Makokha represented Kenya at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year.
The four qualified teams from Africa should confirm their participation to FIVB by Sunday.
The reserve teams in order of priority are Nigeria, Gambia and Rwanda.
Should any of the four qualified teams fail to confirm their participation to FIVB by Sunday, they will be replaced by the reserve teams in order of priority.
