体坛英语新闻： Kenya earns direct entry to Under-23 Volleyball World C'ships

NAIROBI, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's good run in the senior and junior women's volleyball competitions has earned it a surprise invite to the under-23 FIVB Championships scheduled for November in Mexico.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) first Vice Chairman Charles Nyaberi said on Sunday the world volleyball governing body, FIVB, has accorded Kenya the special "wild card" slot on account of its consistent performance in women's conventional and beach game in spite of having not participated in the qualifiers.

"Kenya made a special appeal to both the African Volleyball Confederation (CAVB) and FIVB for Kenya's inclusion and this request was granted," Nyaberi said.

Following this development, Nyaberi unveiled the 20-woman provisional squad to go into training in preparation for this prestigious championship.

Notable inclusions in the squad are Naomie Too and Gaudencia Makokha who have just returned from Poland where they did service for Kenya in the under-23 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships.

Kenya has participated at the FIVB Women's World Cup seven times as well as in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens respectively.

On the continental scene, the Kenyan women have won seven Africa Championships title.

During the 1990's, the Kenya women's volleyball team was quite dominant on the continental scene, where it won the title four times (1991, 1993, 1995 and 1999) in the biennially held tournament.

In 1987, during the 4th All Africa Games in Nairobi, Kenya reached the finals, against public expectations where they lost to Egypt in the finals and settled for silver.

So when Kenya reached the volleyball final of the 1991 All Africa Games, they were expected to fall again to hosts Egypt who were playing before a fanatical home ground support.

However, the determined Kenyans shocked everyone by winning the gold medal, thus the year marking the watershed of Kenyan women volleyball.

The inaugural 2013 FIVB Volleyball Under-23 World Championships Open will be hosted by two countries; Brazil will host the men's event and Mexico the women's.

The introduction of a new tournament as part of FIVB's volleyball calendar will provide another opportunity for age-group players to participate in an international tournament with the goal of reducing the gap between age-group and senior level volleyball.