It is revenge time in African volleyball and Nigeria’s U-19 girls say they were ready as they confront their Cameroonian counterparts in the opening match of the African Nations Volleyball Championship this Friday’s evening at the Indoor Sports Hall located at the Package B of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
The Cameroonian girls defeated Nigeria in three straight sets to win the 2021edition of the Championship held in Cameroon, but the Nigerian team coach, Elishama Elam, said he and his girls were ready to reassert their supremacy over the Cameroonians.
The Nigerian girls are hoping for a better outing after the Boys’ team failed to finish among the top three at the African U21 Men’s Nations Volleyball Championship in Tunisia.
Elam revealed that the girls were ready to make Nigeria proud at the championship after six weeks of camping and intensive training at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) in Kaduna.
He said the team has improved consistently after their defeat to Cameroon last year and will not accept a repeat of such.
“After six weeks of preparations, we are ready for the 2022 Girls’ U19 African Nations Volleyball Championship.
“The girls are in high spirits and by the special grace of God we’ll have the day.
“With the moral of the girls right from the time we entered the camp till our last walkout yesterday, are ready to go.
“I don’t believe Cameroon will beat us this time around because the girls have improved compared to when we played them last year. We just assembled the team when we met Cameroon and based on our current form, judging from the matches we have been playing since last year, there is a lot of improvement and we will not accept what happened last year again against Cameroon. We are going out for revenge by the special grace of God.
“We don’t want to underrate any team because six countries were supposed to be here for this championship but Cameroon and Egypt believe they can come here to pick the ticket to the World Cup, that is not going to happen. We know them,” Elam said.
Meanwhile, President of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), Musa Nimrod, said that Nigeria’s expectation at the championship was a qualification ticket to the World Championship even as he commended the Nigeria Government through the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for giving them the opportunity to host the event in Abuja.
“Our expectation is qualification to the World Championship. We lost the U21 Boys ticket which was very painful, but we are hopeful for the U19 Boys and Girls.
“We appreciate the Sports Ministry for granting us the opportunity and arena to host the championship. One thing I always tell people is that you cannot just bring a letter of invitation for hosting in one month and expect the government to give you approval. It has to go through process and I want to thank the Ministry for giving us the avenue and security to host the Championship,” Nimrod said.
