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Moim confident of African Queens’ chances for Rio 2016

By DAVID KWALIMWA December 22nd, 2014 1 min read

Finnish based Kenyan volleyball player Mercy Moim says she is “satisfied” with the decision by the sport’s continental body (CAVB) to exempt the national women team from competing in the preliminaries of the Olympic qualifiers.

Kenya, which is the top ranked women side on the continent, has alongside Cameroon and Tunisia been handed byes to the final phase of the qualifying rounds of this competition that are set to commence in January 2016.

The decision is based on the strength of recent performances and rankings of these teams.

The three teams will be joined in the final Africa qualification phase by an additional 13 teams selected from the seven zonal continental pools, to vie for Africa’s single ticket to the Rio 2016 Olympics Games.

BUSY SCHEDULE

“I believe the organizers considered our busy schedule next year which is a welcome move. But we must prepare well because clinching Africa’s single slot to the Olympics will not be an easy task,” Moim wo plays for Liiga Ploki in Finland told Nairobi News in an interview from her Scandinavian base.

Kenya is seeking to wrestle the sole qualification ticket to the Olympics from Algeria, who represented the continent at the last edition of the Games in 2012 in London.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) Chairman Waithaka Kioni has in the meantime claimed that the teams will be seeking to qualify for the Olympic Games, reclaim the World Championships ticket, and also make it the World Cup in the next two years.

The national women teams will also be competing in All Africa Games qualifiers, Africa Cup of Nations, World Cup qualifiers and the 2014 Junior Women African Nations Championship during the course of the next year.