WINDHOEK – Namibia’s youth beach volleyball teams travel to Ghana today for the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games qualification tournament for Africa.
Alltogether 13 African nations will battle it out in Accra, the Ghanaian capital during April 11-13 to try to gain one of the 6 qualifying berths that Africa will receive for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in August this year. “If Namibia outperforms at least 7 countries at the qualifiers, we will be in Nanjing where beach volleyball will make its debut,” a confident Heiko Kesselmann, beach volleyball director of the Namibia Volleyball Federation, commented. “Our chances are good, as we have had a very intense training programme for the youngsters with 3 coaches and also individual one-on-one sessions assessing and improving the athlete’s fitness,” coach Achim Lück added. Lück will accompany the 4-member youth team to Ghana.
The boys teams consist of Jan Eric Sack and Roman von Ludwiger, while the pair of Kim Seebach and Stephanie Palmhert will compete in the girls division. Each continent will receive 6 places to make up 30 teams to travel to China, while the host nation will receive 2 places to make up a competition of 32 teams per gender.
By Staff Reporter