The Sierra Leone Volleyball Association will host the first round of the Zonal Phase of the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) Competition slated for 3-7July at Lumley Beach.
This was disclosed to Awoko Sport by the Secretary General of the Association, Ahmed Khanu.
The competition is the first Olympic Elimination Event in the zonal phase for both CAVB and FIVB and the second international beach volleyball organized by the Volleyball Association within six months.
According to the association, African countries have been divided into five zones and in each of the zones four countries will qualify to the next stage of the competition.
Sierra Leone is in group A alongside 9 other countries including Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal
At the end of the first phase, 20 countries will remain and will be divided into four zones with five countries in each zone and that at the end of stage two, countries from each zone will proceed to the next stage comprising 8 countries.
The 8 countries will play another competition and the winner and runners up will automatically qualify for the London Olympic Games next year, while the third and fourth place winners will participate in another competition in Europe to have a chance to qualify for the same games.
Ahmed Khanu also stated that by 2nd July, all participating countries should have arrived and also on the same day during the afternoon, preliminary inquiry of the competition by the participating countries will be held followed by technical meeting where the rules of the competition will be discussed.
The Sierra Leone National Beach Volleyball Team has started intensive training ahead of the competition with 6 males and 6 females, but the final selection of 4 male and 4 female players will be made days before the start of the competition.
When Awoko Sports visited the training session, most of the players said that they are very confident that they will qualify to the next stage of the competition, as their main focus is on the London Olympic Games next year.
The Association has meanwhile appealed to government to come on board to support them as the players want to put the country on the map of Beach Volleyball.