'NIGERIA A LEADING COUNTRY IN BEACH VOLLEYBALL'
The Chairman of Nigeria Beach Volleyball, Engineer Musa Nimrod has stated that Nigeria is currently the leading country in beach volleyball in West Africa zone assuring Nigerians that Beach Volleyball has come to stay and as such they are not afraid of playing any country in the All Africa Games qualifiers scheduled to commence March 10, 2011 in Abuja.
Addressing sportswriters at the Murtala Mohammed Square in Kaduna, Nimrod who is also the Chairman of Kaduna State Volleyball Association said that beach volleyball is a game that is second to soccer noting that it is gaining wide publicity and even at the last Olympic Games, beach volleyball attracted more spectatorship and publicity than soccer.
According to him the All African Games have entries from Ghana, Liberia hoping that other countries will register. He stressed with optimism that what his teams are waiting for now is the qualifiers to commence in Abuja adding that with beach volley ball Nigeria is going to move higher because they are not afraid of any African country.
'Nigerians should be rest assured that the country's flag will fly in the beach volleyball event at the All Africa Games as well as the London 2012 Olympic Games, because our boys are in good shape and ready to face any team,' he reiterated.
He said that they have gotten space in Abuja Parks and Gardens Department for beach volleyball courts at the Jabi Dam and same venue will host the All Africa Games qualification.
Nimrod emphasized that in the last competition held at Republic of Guinea, they came first in the male team followed by Algeria and that only 47 countries out of 52 countries in Africa participated at the Africa games first round of qualifiers and they were able to scale through, 'so this time around we will also scale through,' he stressed.
The beach volleyball female team include Agherra Priscilla (captain) from Benue state, Maryam Garba from Benue, Jummai Bitrus from Adamawa and Isabella Eyatsonetan from Delta state while the male team include Kayode Ajilore (captain) from Osun state, Kefas Eric from Adamawa, Abdulazeez Adamu from Gombe and Goodluck Onyesodike from Imo state. Their coach is Charkuma Ismail.