Beach volleyball players will play at least nine international competitions when FIVB calendar resumes.
This was confirmed by the Kenya Volleyball Federation president Waithaka Kioni.
Kenya did not honour phase two, the penultimate stage of the Continental Cup-cum-Africa Olympic qualifiers in Nigeria (women) and Gambia (men) following government travel advisory in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the Africa.
For the women's showpiece, only Zambia traveled to Abuja, Nigeria and together with the hosts awarded to tickets to the final round. Kenya, Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of Congo withdrew from the competition at a time when Nigeria had already recorded coronavirus cases.
In the men's Group C contest, host Gambia and South Sudan participated in the qualifiers as Mauritius, Botswana and Kenya gave the competition a wide berth.
However, Kioni remains optimistic that KVF's appeal to the Confederation of African Volleyball will return positive and give the Kenyan sides chances to fairly contest for the slots in the final phase of the 2020 Olympic qualifications.
"We appealed to the CAVB and sought the intervention of FIVB (Federation of International Volleyball). That pending, we have plans to field our BVB players in FIVB homologated beach volleyball events once Covid-19 is contained and the world opens up," said the official.
Sammy Mulinge, beach volleyball teams head coach says it is a requirement for Olympic-bound BVB players to have participated in at least 11 FIVB homologated events to increase their rankings.
"For players to compete at the Olympics stage, they must have featured in, and amassed international ranking points from 11 World Tours (homologated competitions). Our girls have so far competed in two (in Tanzania)," said Mulinge.
The tactician intimated that Kenya registered its players in the FIVB system last November. In addition, Mulinge notes that KVF has applied for the homologation of the Kenyan National BVB Tour from FIVB.
"If the homologation is granted, the national tour will be open for teams from abroad and accrue points internationally. We must have at least two courts at a competition venue, 32 teams (16 for each gender) and event sponsorship from where winner must get cash awards," added the coach.
With the requirement of two courts at a competition venue, Strathmore University will be forced to put up another BVB court or forego hosting the National Tour.
The varsity has been the sole beach volleyball venue in the Kenyan capital for the past three years, with only one court.
