Volleyball team ready for qualifiers

Zambia Volleyball Association (ZAVA) general secretary Charles Haambote said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that all logistics were in place, except for transport which he said his association is trying to organise with the help of the Government.
Hambote said the team which consists of 16 players and has been in camp for the past two weeks was injury-free.
“The volleyball team has been in training camp for two weeks now. They have been engaged in intensive training to make sure that they are in best shape for the games,” he said.
He said the association would select the final 12 players to travel to Botswana and called for seriousness from the players in camp, saying the final team would be picked on merit.
“We have more than 12 players in camp and that means we will have to choose from those to come up with the required number of 12 who will have to travel to Gaborone.
Haambote  was optimistic that the team to be selected would do Zambia proud by reaping medals.
Zambia and Botswana were given the rights by the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) to host the second edition of the Zone Six World Championship qualifying tournament earlier this year, with Zambia hosting the women’s version of the qualifiers.
And Hambote has said preparations for Zambia’s hosting of the Women’s World Cup qualifiers from October 21 to 27 were underway and progressing well.
He said the women’s team was also training hard even though they had not started full time training camp since they still had sometime before their games.
He said the women’s qualifiers are scheduled to take place at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka from October 21 to 27.
Zambia recently qualified to the second round of the World Championship qualifiers after the men emerged first in their group, while the women were third during the qualifiers that were held in Malawi a fortnight ago.
The men came first in the group after beating Zimbabwe, Namibia and host Malawi to win a gold medal, while the women won bronze after beating hosts Malawi in the final game, despite earlier losing to Namibia and Zimbabwe.