Teams converge on Ukunda for trials

What you need to know:

  • According to Juma, each team of two will pay a participation fee of Sh1,000 in both men’s and women’s categories to have a chance of competing for the two slots reserved for Kenya at the Sub Zonal qualifiers in Tanzania.
  • Other teams expected at the trials include Co-operative Bank, General Service Unit, Nairobi Water (women), Administration police teams, Forest Rangers, Kenya Airways, Kenya Posta and Kenya Ports Authority.

Kenya Volleyball Federation men’s league champions Prisons are among the teams that have arrived in Ukunda in Mombasa’s south Coast for the national trials to select a team that will represent Kenya in Sub Zone Five Beach volleyball championships in Tanzania.

Prisons women’s team will also compete in the tournament that begins tomorrow.

Kenya Beach Volleyball Commission chairman Ben Juma led officials, among them Sammy Mulinge, Ruth Rop and Fred Gitau, in an inspection tour of match venues Jacaranda Hotel yesterday.

Juma said all is set for the two-day event which will be held tomorrow and Sunday and will also be used to select the national team for the Kenya teams for the 2015 All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.

The Sub Zone Five qualifiers will however be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in a fortnight. Juma, who is also the assistant secretary-general of the Kenya Volleyball Federation, said the venues are ready  for the championship and will be accessible to teams for training today.

TRAINING GROUND

“We know most teams do not have access to the beaches and we will allow them to train the whole of today at the match venue so that they cane have a feel of the grounds,” Juma, himself a former international volleyball player, added.

According to Juma, each team of two will pay a participation fee of Sh1,000 in both men’s and women’s categories to have a chance of competing for the two slots reserved for Kenya at the Sub Zonal qualifiers in Tanzania.

Other teams expected at the trials include Co-operative Bank, General Service Unit, Nairobi Water (women), Administration police teams, Forest Rangers, Kenya Airways, Kenya Posta and Kenya Ports Authority.

Also expected at this weekend’s trials are all the Coast-based clubs, among them Mombasa Prisons, Changamwe Volleyball Club, Migadini Volleyball Team, Jacaranda Hotel, Mivumoni Secondary School and Mabati Rolling Mills teams.

Juma believes the high turn out will give Kenya an opportunity to select a strong team for the Sub Zonal qualifiers set for February 14-19.
Hosts Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi will compete in Dar es Salaam this weekend.