Left to right … Patrick Lombi and Abu Bakar Kamara
Sierra Leone’s male beach volleyball team made a rapid rise in the latest Africa beach volleyball rankings, moving fourteen places up to from 23rd to ninth in the African log.
The pair, Abu Bakar Kamara and Patrick Lombi made this progress after an impressive show in the just concluded African Nations World Championships Qualifier held in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
Despite their progress on the continental stage, the Sierra Leonean pair failed to qualify-in their first attempt- for the forthcoming 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in The Netherlands.
Sierra Leone’s male beach volleyball team made a rapid rise in the latest Africa beach volleyball rankings, moving fourteen places up to from 23rd to ninth in the African log.
The pair, Abu Bakar Kamara and Patrick Lombi made this progress after an impressive show in the just concluded African Nations World Championships Qualifier held in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
Despite their progress on the continental stage, the Sierra Leonean pair failed to qualify-in their first attempt- for the forthcoming 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in The Netherlands.
It was the host nation, Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa and West Africa giant, Ghana who all claimed the four available Africa qualification spot but the Sierra Leone coach, Sorie Kamara was pleased with his boy’s performance in the tournament.
He said: “For us, it is a plus because this was the first time these boy’s competed in this stage, all this while they were challenging in different Under age tournament so this was their first Open competition.”
“We were hoping to qualify for the World Championship but again we did not consider missing out as a failure because we made progress in our ranking and we earlier used this tournament test case for the boys ahead of the forthcoming sub-zonal 2016 Olympic qualifiers.”
The Sierra Leone Volleyball Association (SLVA) scribe Ahmed Khanou also shared similar sentiment with Coach Sorie and further stated that their biggest target now is secure qualification to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“For us it was a great tournament but now our biggest challenge is qualifying from our sub-zonal pool to the last qualification spot in reaching Rio Olympic Games,”Khanou said.
He said: “For us, it is a plus because this was the first time these boy’s competed in this stage, all this while they were challenging in different Under age tournament so this was their first Open competition.”
“We were hoping to qualify for the World Championship but again we did not consider missing out as a failure because we made progress in our ranking and we earlier used this tournament test case for the boys ahead of the forthcoming sub-zonal 2016 Olympic qualifiers.”
The Sierra Leone Volleyball Association (SLVA) scribe Ahmed Khanou also shared similar sentiment with Coach Sorie and further stated that their biggest target now is secure qualification to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“For us it was a great tournament but now our biggest challenge is qualifying from our sub-zonal pool to the last qualification spot in reaching Rio Olympic Games,”Khanou said.
By: Sahr Morris Jr.
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