The Kenyan national volleyball women team arrived in Nairobi in two batches, the first one consisting of 8 players and a coach at 6:00am and the second one at midday Monday from Blida Algeria where they failed to defend their African title falling to hosts Algeria 3-1 in their final Olympics qualifier match on Saturday.
The loss therefore meant Kenya will not be represented at the Olympics in London but Algeria who booked the single ticket to represent Africa in the women’s volleyball competition.
Head coach Gideon Chenje who arrived with the second batch at around noon on Monday expressed his disappointment given that they had beaten Algeria before.
“This was the realistic chance of representing the country at the Olympics, the last time Kenya was there was at the Athens Olympics.Am personally disappointed for our failure to qualify, this is the best squad in Africa at the moment though we lost to a better Algeria side in front of capacity crowd. I urge the girls not to give up but continue to work hard since this is not the end of the road.We have other championships ahead tp prove that we are still a force in African volleyball.” said the coach
During the four nations’ tournament in Algeria, Kenya won two matches against Seychelles 3-0 and against Egypt 3-1 but failed to overcome home team Algeria before over 5,000 spectators.
Algeria will join hosts Great Britain and the top three world Cup finishers.These are Italy (World Cup winner), USA (World Cup second place) and China (World Cup third place). The FIVB world Cup was hosted in Japan in 2011.
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