Post by Onyango Oloo on Sept 16, 2005 18:56:19 GMT 3
english.people.com.cn/200509/16/eng20050916_208841.html
Kenya has won the 15th African Women's Volleyball Championship which ended Wednesday evening in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
The Kenyans recovered from a first set loss to beat host Nigerians 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 25-21 and 25-18) in the final at the Abuja National Stadium.
The victory means that Kenya has qualified for the 2007 Women's Volleyball World Cup slated in Italy, and also crushes the dream of the Nigerians to win the first-ever continental trophy.
Egypt defeated Tunisia in Tuesday's battle for the third place.
Source: Xinhua
Related Story:
www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=28291
Why Nigeria Lost - Kenya Coach
By Femi Solaja, 09.15.2005
Kenya coach David Lungaho has attributed loss of concentration as the major reason why Nigerian fell like a pack of cards in the final match of the just concluded 15th African Nations Cup Volleyball Championship.
The 10-day tourney, in which Nigeria lost for the second consecutive time, saw the team reduced to toddlers by the Kenyans in a one-sided match which ended 3-1 at the Abuja National Stadium on Wednesday night.
Moments after the winning trophy was handed over to the new African champions, coach Lungaho observed that they have anticipated a tough match from the Nigerian team but were surprised with the standard of play of the host country.
"In as much as I will say we deserved to win this tournament because we actually prepared for it, I also noticed that the Nigerian team failed to raise their game and its quite unfortunate that the final match did not live up to the expectations of every one at the stadium.
"Our victory today is the reward of a long term planning because the players have been in camp for more than three months or there about. And even when some of our professional players in America failed to show up we were still confident of winning the competition," he explained.
In the final match, the Nigerian team propelled with pronouncement from the Sports Minister Dr Seidu Sambawa to splash N100, 000 on each player should they win the match, took the first game 15-19 but lost the next three games 22-25, 21-25, 18-25.
The East African nation thus secured their fifth title win and first one in eight years as against Nigeria that is yet to win it and were runner-up to Egypt when Cairo hosted the last edition.
Even though Tunisia placed fourth, they won most of the individual awards with Mariem Agrebi, Nihel Ghoul, Ben Cheikh and Ghoul being adjudged the best scorer, best receiver, best setter and best blocker respectively while Egypt's Toson Hussein won the Most Valuable Player of the competition.
Kenya has won the 15th African Women's Volleyball Championship which ended Wednesday evening in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
The Kenyans recovered from a first set loss to beat host Nigerians 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 25-21 and 25-18) in the final at the Abuja National Stadium.
The victory means that Kenya has qualified for the 2007 Women's Volleyball World Cup slated in Italy, and also crushes the dream of the Nigerians to win the first-ever continental trophy.
Egypt defeated Tunisia in Tuesday's battle for the third place.
Source: Xinhua
Related Story:
www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=28291
Why Nigeria Lost - Kenya Coach
By Femi Solaja, 09.15.2005
Kenya coach David Lungaho has attributed loss of concentration as the major reason why Nigerian fell like a pack of cards in the final match of the just concluded 15th African Nations Cup Volleyball Championship.
The 10-day tourney, in which Nigeria lost for the second consecutive time, saw the team reduced to toddlers by the Kenyans in a one-sided match which ended 3-1 at the Abuja National Stadium on Wednesday night.
Moments after the winning trophy was handed over to the new African champions, coach Lungaho observed that they have anticipated a tough match from the Nigerian team but were surprised with the standard of play of the host country.
"In as much as I will say we deserved to win this tournament because we actually prepared for it, I also noticed that the Nigerian team failed to raise their game and its quite unfortunate that the final match did not live up to the expectations of every one at the stadium.
"Our victory today is the reward of a long term planning because the players have been in camp for more than three months or there about. And even when some of our professional players in America failed to show up we were still confident of winning the competition," he explained.
In the final match, the Nigerian team propelled with pronouncement from the Sports Minister Dr Seidu Sambawa to splash N100, 000 on each player should they win the match, took the first game 15-19 but lost the next three games 22-25, 21-25, 18-25.
The East African nation thus secured their fifth title win and first one in eight years as against Nigeria that is yet to win it and were runner-up to Egypt when Cairo hosted the last edition.
Even though Tunisia placed fourth, they won most of the individual awards with Mariem Agrebi, Nihel Ghoul, Ben Cheikh and Ghoul being adjudged the best scorer, best receiver, best setter and best blocker respectively while Egypt's Toson Hussein won the Most Valuable Player of the competition.