Nigeria Female Beach Volleyball team have clinched a ticket for the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championship in Germany in June after beating Team Niger Republic 2-0 (21-18, 21-16).
Nigeria’s Tochukwu Nnoruga and Francesca Ikhiede fought hard to beat Rakatou Seydou and Roukaya Garba of Niger Republic in the quarterfinals of the ongoing 2019 Africa Beach Volleyball Cup Seniors at the Jabi Lake, Abuja.
Speaking after the game, Nigeria National team Coach, Imoudu Francis, commended the team for picking the last ticket adding that the team will put up good a show when they lock horns with their Egyptian foes.
“The game was explosive because it was a desired and a qualification ticket. People get to misunderstand the concept of this competition. Every team want to make sure that they are in the world cup that is why we supported Sierra Leone to clinch the other ticket so that west Africa will have at least a nation in the world championship.”
Reacting to the result, the President of Nigeria Volleyball Federation, Engineer Musa Nimrod expressed satisfaction on Team Nigeria’s performance so far in the tournament and promised to support the team in their quest to make the nation proud.
“Qualifying to the world championship is what we have been looking forward to because it is one of the reasons we are hosting the games.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria male team lost to Mozambique 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) in the first quarter final on Thursday.
Reacting to the defeat, Imoudo said he was impressed with the performance of his players even though they lost their match.
“Mozambique is currently the number one team in Africa and they have played together for nine years,” said Imuodo.
“I am a coach, I accept defeat because our opponents had qualified for the world championship. I need to work more on my team because we have a championship in Cape Verde and the Africa Game in Morocco.”
