Volleyball: Kenya to host CAVB club events

Kenya will host the Zone Five Confederation of Africa Volleyball (CAVB) men and women's clubs championship between November 25 to December 10 at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani indoor arena in Nairobi.

The event will attract winners of the National Leagues across the zone that include Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and hosts Kenya.

Newly elected Kenya Volleyball Federation president Charles Nyaberi said they were given the honours by CAVB to stage the event that was initially called East and Central Clubs championship.

"It has been a long time since we hosted an international event and I'm excited about the rights to host the event. Definitely, Karasani won't be enough to stage the event, but we are exhausting other facilities. As the host nation, we are given the option to field at least two teams and therefore we look forward to giving our teams the chance," said Nyaberi.

General Service Unit and Kenya Pipeline will represent the country by virtue of winning the men and women's National League titles respectively.

At the same time, Nyaberi revealed that the national men's volleyball team, Wafalme will head into residential training Monday at Kasarani in readiness for the upcoming African Nations Championship in Cairo, Egypt from September 1-14.

The team has been in non-residential training for the last three weeks at the Nyayo National stadium indoor arena.

"While we might not have the financial muscle when it comes to the men's team unlike women, we hope that we will give the Wafalme the same treatment as their female counterparts going forward. We know that the one week might not be enough and I believe it will help them gel before they depart for Egypt on August 29," he added.

Nyaberi said the new office that was elected on Saturday during the federation's National elections at Nyayo will revive and revamp the centres of excellence across the country.

Centres of excellence were previously centred around secondary schools that performed well in volleyball but the arrangements fizzled out in 2019.

"The federation attached coaches to these schools during holidays and players drawn across the country will train. But we no longer have this luxury but we are keen to bring it back. We want players who are retiring to be attached to schools like Kesogon, Kwanthanze, St Patrick's Iten among others. These will act as feeder to the national teams and the age group competitions," Nyaberi offered.