Kenya must jealously guard beach volleyball slot for Paris Olympics

The FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championship serves off on Friday in Mexico with 48 women and 48 men teams converging on the cities of Tlaxcala, Huamantla and Apizaco for the 10-day competition.

Defending champions Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sorum (men) from Norway as well as Brazilians Ana Patricia and Eduarda Santos (women) will put their titles on the line as the 96 pairs battle for the sole ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games reserved for the winners.

Africa will be represented by Gambia, Morocco and Mozambique in the men’s category while Nigeria and Mozambique will be the continent’s representatives in the women’s category.

While winning the competition will certainly be a tall order for African teams, it presents a golden opportunity for them to test themselves against superior opposition and earn more ranking points.

It’s unfortunate that Kenya’s women’s pair of Gaudenica Makokha and Brackcides Agala will miss out on this year’s edition after participating in the previous edition held in Rome last year.

The duo represented Africa at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games but failed to qualify after missing the African Nations Championship held in Agadir, Morocco last year, instead opting to participate in the Commonwealth Games.

The Road to Paris will start this month with the Zone V qualifiers where the top three teams in both gender categories will qualify for the 2024 CAVB Continental Cup. The winner of the Continental Cup will get the sole slot reserved for Africa at the Paris 2024 Games in line with the universality principle.

The experienced Agala is yet to recover from a knee injury and could miss the Zone V qualifiers which means Kenya Volleyball Federation need to move with speed and identify a quality replacement to partner with Makokha.

Yvonne Wavinya, Veronica Adhiambo, Phosca Kasisi and Naomi Too have been regulars at the national team but it’s the latter who complements Makokha well. While Makokha has a better reach in blocking, Too is a fantastic digger who covers every particle of sand while defending.

They played together at the 2017 World Championships in Austria and recently reunited at the Bujumbura Futures Beach Pro Tour stop in August where they were eliminated at the quarter-finals stage.

With little time to prepare, there is urgent need for coach Sammy Mulinge to quickly put together a team that is capable of retaining our beach volleyball slot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

But first things first, qualifying for next year’s CAVB Continental Cup. The upcoming Zone V qualifiers will be fiercely contested with Egypt, Burundi and Rwanda all capable of reaching the podium.

Egypt have already warmed up for the zonal qualifiers by participating in the Mediterranean Games last month and will certainly start as favourites for gold.

Makokha and Too are Kenya’s best bet for the gold but we should try and qualify as many pairs as possible for the Continental Cup to make our journey to Paris easier come next year.

As hosts, Kenya should also use this opportunity to expose youngsters Sharon Jepkosgei and Abigael Chebet from Kaboson Girls High School who finished an impressive fourth at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

Our future looks bright in beach volleyball but without quality preparations, starting with the upcoming zonal tourney, qualifying for Paris 2024 Olympics will be an uphill task.