Nigeria’s beach volleyball national team have opened camp in Kaduna, ahead of their outing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers next week, megasportsarena.com reports.
The qualifiers, which will hold under the tag of CAVB Continental Cup 2nd Round Phase, are set to run from March 19th to 23rd in Mozambique, ahead of which the Nigerian camp opened this past Tuesday, with all the eight invited players present.
The invited players are Andrew Sunday and Godwin Shekarau of Team Sazahm as well as Peter Ibrahim of Team Kada, Obayomi Ogunshina of Nigeria Police Force, Abdulrasheed Ahmed of Team Gallant, Emenike Ezike of Team Rivers and Babalola Hussain of Team Plateau.
The players have started going through technical build-up and tips from their coaches, Kayode Ajilore and his assistant, John Iwerima, with adequate support from the officials at their camp at Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna.
One of the new invitees, Andrew Sunday expressed optimism that they will be able to overcome the hurdles posed by the host country, Mozambique as well as Tunisia, Zambia and Republic of Congo in Group A of the qualifiers, even as he expressed delight over his national team call up.
The player from Bauchi State said he is happy with his maiden invitation, which makes him feel highly honoured among thousands of players scattered across the country, while also pointing out that unity in his team and his combinations with fellow-invitee, Godwin Shekarau made him stand out and helped their outfit win the President Beach Volleyball Cup last month in Kaduna.
Sunday told www.aclsports.com: “I feel very happy being invited among the eight players chosen to prepare for the second round of the Olympic qualifier in Mozambique. The secret behind Team Sazahm can be attributed to togetherness, teamwork, fighting spirit and understanding. Godwin Shekarau makes my job very easy on the court.
“By virtue of players invited to camp as well as coaches I have a strong belief that we are good to go. We will take one step at a time and repeat what the team did at the first phase. I have a strong conviction that we can scale through the second phase and eventually shock Africa by qualifying for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”
