NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – National women’s volleyball team head coach Paul Bitok says next year’s All Africa Games in Ghana will be a perfect opportunity for his charges to gauge themselves ahead of the qualifiers for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Bitok said the quadrennial event is part of meticulous early preparations for Malkia Strikers as they bid for a second consecutive appearance at the Summer Games following last year’s edition in Tokyo.
“We are going to start immediately (early preparations). I am sure that our federation (Kenya Volleyball Federation) have a good plan in store for us. We are going to be in continuous training and will be using the different competitions, such as the All Africa Games to gauge ourselves before the qualifiers,” Bitok said.
The longstanding tactician was at the helm at September’s World Championships in the Netherlands where the volleyball queens exited at the group stage after losing all but one of the five matches against the hosts, Belgium, Puerto Rico and Italy, while winning in straight sets against African champions Cameroon.
Despite failing in their bid to qualify for the knockout stages for the first-time ever, Malkia players caught the eye of scouts at the global showpiece, leading to the signing of star players Sharon Chepchumba and Veronicah Adhiambo by Aris Thessaloniki and Tarsus Beleyidespor of Greece and Turkey respectively.
Bitok predicted that more of his players will be signed to professional terms, noting that this bodes well for the national team as they seek to improve their performance at the international level.
“We saw that out of the 24 teams that competed in Netherlands, we were ranked 19th. This is a massive improvement and positive signs for the future. Two of our players were signed by top clubs in the world and I expect more clubs to come for more of our players. As we head to the Paris Olympics, I expect at least 10 of our players to go professional and this is a good sign for us as we prepare to battle the biggest teams on the global stage,” the former Rwandese national coach said.
He was speaking on Monday morning at Moi Stadium Kasarani during the unveiling of a Kes 9 million scholarship by National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) for Malkia Strikers and the national 3×3 basketball team to aid in their preparations for upcoming international assignments.
Bitok described the funding as a shot in the arm and a break away from tradition where many national teams experience financial challenges during preparations for competitions.
“I think this is the first time that we are starting preparations for the Olympics around three years early before the tournament. We thank NOCK for consistently standing with us and supporting us during our preps for the World Championships,” he said.
Echoing his sentiments was Malkia captain Mercy Moim who said the financial backing will inspire the team to scale higher heights and take volleyball standards to the next level.
“With the right preparations, everything will work out well. This is exactly what we needed for our preparations for the upcoming year, which will be a busy one. This (financial support) will not be in vain rather we want to strive to surpass expectations and do better than our last outing,” the Kenya Commercial Bank player said.
