ZIMBABWE’S national volleyball teams for both women and men will miss the upcoming African Olympic qualifiers due to lack of funding, the Zimbabwe Volleyball Association (ZVA) secretary-general Rangisai Mapondera said yesterday.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Zimbabwe had initially been included among the entries for the continental qualifiers where the winners in both the men and women’s tournaments will qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Cameroon will host the women’s African Olympic Qualifiers in Yaoundé from February 12-19, while Congo will host the men’s event which will run from January 7-14.
Mapondera told NewsDay Sport in an interview yesterday that after initially entering the two tournaments, they decided to withdraw after failing to raise the required funds to make the two trips.
“I can confirm that we are no longer participating in the men and women’s African Olympic Volleyball qualifiers,” Mapondera said.
“Initially, the excecutive board had made the decision to participate in the two tournaments on condition that we managed to meet our budgets.
“However, due to the current economic situation we have not been able to secure any funding for us to compete. We had also planned to seek funding from the government, but as we all know they have also been facing some challenges hence our decision to pull out.
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“The participation fee alone was $1 000 per team while we also needed to secure funding for airfares and accommodation for the two teams.”
The women’s continental qualifiers will feature a record 16 countries including Algeria, Tunisia, Gambia, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Gabon, Kenya, Egypt, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and Madagascar.
Hosts Cameroon are among the 21 national teams which will feature in the men’s qualifier together with Algeria, Tunisia, Gambia, Cape Verde, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, Central Africa, Congo Brazzaville, DRC, Cameroon, Gabon, Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, and Madagascar. Tunisia represented Africa at the 2012 London Olympics in the men’s category, while Algeria claimed the African Qualification tickets in the last two Olympics –in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The Zimbabwe national beach volleyball team recently took part in the men’s Olympic qualifiers in Egypt where they also missed out on qualification after succumbing to defeats against the hosts, Rwanda and Angola in the first round.
