The Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVF) said on Friday that the country’s male and female volleyball teams had qualified for the 13th edition of the Ghana 2024 African Games.
The Technical Director of the federation, Martin Melandi, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
He said the automatic qualification was because of Benin Republic’s failure to honour its match engagements.
Benin Republic revealed they couldn’t fund travel expenses of her teams as the reason for not honouring the engagements.
This is Zone 3 for West Africa. We were supposed to play against Benin Republic. We got their assurance but they withdrew at the last minute.
“Ali Yaro, Zonal President of West Africa, has written to the Confederation of African Volleyball that Nigeria’s volleyball teams have qualified automatically.
“So, we had to organise exhibition matches for them with some selected Lagos players. This is their first game since they entered camp. I’m optimistic that with subsequent friendlies they will perform well,” he said.
NAN reports that the men’s team led by Moses Gana defeated Lagos State selected volleyball team 3-0 in a best of three games 30-28, 25-21, 25-22.
Mr Gana told NAN he was certain subsequent matches would be tougher for the team’s opponents.
Mr Gana, who was named captain of the team, said he was not under pressure.
“All we want to do is win. I’m glad we won against Lagos with a narrow margin, which I believe is because this is our first match since we entered camp.
“There’s no pressure at all being the captain of the senior team. It doesn’t put me under any pressure. I captained my local team for 10 years and I captained the U-21 national team. So it’s a familiar terrain.
“There has been tremendous development in volleyball since 2021 and I believe my team and I will perform optimally,” Mr Gana said.