By Jude Opara, Abuja
As the ongoing African Women’s Volleyball Club Championship enters the semi finals in Abuja, some officials and players of the participating countries have commended the country and indeed the Comptroller General Customs (CGC) for the facilities provided for the competition describing it as meeting every international standard.
Head coach, Mayo Kani Evolution (MKE) of Cameroon, Ngon Ntame, who spoke after his girls lost to Al Ahly Sporting club (AHL) of Egypt 3-0 ( 25-17,25-19,25-15 ) commended Nigeria for hosting the competition which she described as a thing of pride for Africa.
Ntame challenged her country and other black African countries to emulate Nigeria because the competition has hosted mostly been hosted by the North Africans.
“The organization of the competition is very good. It is a first time in a very long time that another part of Africa organized a competition like this because most of the time, this competition holds in North Africa. I love what I saw here in terms of organization and the facilities. Nigeria has really done well.
“We are out of the competition but we’ll still continue to compete at the lower ranking which is between the 9th and the 16 position and our main objective now is to be 9th. We are encouraged by what the Customs through the Comptroller General has put in place for the competition and I want other countries like Cameroon and black Africa to try and emulate what Nigeria has achieved in organizing this tournament. The tournament is top-notch”.
Speaking in the same manner, captain of Al-Alhy Egypt team, Mayar Khalifa praised Nigeria on what they have put up so far.
Khalifa said she is confident that he team has the ability to navigate its way to the final and take the club to Egypt.
“The organization of this competition is the best. We can see everything about the organization and everything is well organized. Everything about the event is very good. The matches, officiating, the training, the buses everything is really good. We are looking forward to taking the cup back home to Egypt.”
She equally gave a hint on why her team has been very good in the competition saying; “We discussed with our wings and we played well and we won. We have been performing well from the start of the competition and our secret is that we have been focusing on the championship.
“We want to take the cup and we want to go back to for Egypt with the cup and we are focusing on every step on the way; the training and the matches. And everyday, we are discussing on how to focus on the matches and that’s what every player and the team is doing.”
In the other quarter final game, SSV of Botswana lost to VC laloi Democratic of Congo 26-24,22-25,23-25 ,13-25(1-3).
