Kenya women's sitting volleyball national team during a previous match with Rwanda
Kenya Sitting Volleyball Federation secretary general Justus Katumo is confident both the men's and women's national teams can secure historic qualifications for the 2025 World Sitting Volleyball Championships, set for October in the USA.
The journey to the global stage begins on home soil as Kenya hosts the Africa Sitting Volleyball Championships for the first time, with the prestigious continental tournament scheduled for July 1–10 at the Kasarani Indoor Arena. With World Championship tickets up for grabs, Katumo says Kenya is leaving nothing to chance.
"The African Championships are a crucial stepping stone for us. We want to ensure both our men's and women's teams secure qualification for the World Championships," Katumo stated. Katumo emphasised that a successful campaign would be the perfect way to acknowledge the government's unwavering support. "We want to post good results and qualify for the World Championships to show the government that their money is not going to waste."
"We have a good standing with the government and they are our biggest sponsors with over 80 per cent of our sponsorship coming from them," he added.
Preparations are already in full swing, with both teams currently in camp at Kasarani, building form and chemistry under the watchful eye of the technical bench.
"We held a process of selecting the national team from April 24-26 at the Nyayo indoor gymnasium for both the men and women teams."
"From the selection, we came up with 30 players in each team who are currently training and preparing for the African qualifiers," Katumo added.
Katumo, however, revealed that that number will be trimmed down starting this week. "This week we will reduce that number to around 18 players and after that reduce it even further to 14 players according to the World Para Volleyball guidelines," he noted. "At the moment, we have six coaches and three referee's but we hope to increase that number as time goes by."
With the African Championships just around the corner, the technical bench is working around the clock to prepare the teams. "We began training two weeks ago. Those two weeks are crucial for the coaches to build chemistry in the team and figure out the players' strengths and weaknesses."
"We have little time to get ready, but I am confident we will be ready to go for the qualifiers," he noted.
For the continental showpiece, Katumo revealed that they have so far gotten confirmation from four women's and eight men's teams.
"So far, we have confirmed that four men and eight women teams will be attending, with other additions expected before the championship," he said.
The confirmed women's teams are the hosts Kenya, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Congo, with Uganda, South Africa, and Burundi expected to confirm their participation soon.
The men's teams feature Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria and Libya with three more nations expected to confirm their participation.
Katumo singled out North African heavyweights and regional rivals as the main obstacles. "Egypt is a big threat in the men's team, they are a top side and very good. In the women's team, Rwanda is a huge threat. We have played them numerous times before and they have bested us," he said.
