Volleyball: FIVB Men’s World Championship |26 February 2014

Seychelles men’s team leave for Tunisia today

The Seychelles men’s volleyball team leave for Tunisia today to take part in the 2014 FIVB Men’s World Championship pool Y African qualifiers from March 2-8.

Coached by François Ally, the team comprise Jean-Paul Agathe, Jerry Lozaique, Ricky Vel, Daniel Lozaique, Kenneth Sinon, Perrin Sophola, Paul Rose, Guy Valentin, Danny Marie, Guilly Bijoux, Jones Mangroo and Rodney Ah-kong.

The big absentee is captain Ian Furneau who is staying home because of a back injury and work commitment.

Team manager Ronald Wong, Seychelles Volleyball Federation chairman Jude Florentine and referee Michael Ah-kong will also accompany the team.

Setter Mangroo will also act as assistant coach to François Ally who has said his team will be all out to give a good account of themselves.

“It’s going to be tough playing teams who will be looking to win the final ticket to the World Championship. For all volleyballers it is a chance of a lifetime to play at the worlds and I expect my players to give it their best shot although we know it won’t be an easy ride,” said coach Ally who was part of the Seychelles team who won the Indian Ocean Island Games gold medal in Seychelles in 1993.

Seychelles will be vying with hosts Tunisia, Congo, Senegal and Nigeria for top spot in pool Y for the third and final ticket to the FIVB men’s volleyball event in Poland from August 30 to September 21.

Egypt and Cameroon are the first two African representatives to book their places at the most prestigious event in international volleyball.

Egypt qualified for the FIVB World Championship by winning all their four matches in pool U qualifiers at the Safaricom Indoor Arena in Nairobi, beating Kenya 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 25-20), Zambia 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-15), Botswana 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-9) and Cape Verde 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-16).

This is the fifth time in a row Egypt have qualified for the prestigious FIVB event and the eighth in total after 1974, 1978, 1986, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010.  

As for Cameroon, they booked their ticket to the World Championship by winning pool T of the African qualifiers which the country hosted at the Palais des Sports in Yaoundé.

The Cameroonians finished the five-nation round-robin tournament with a win-loss ratio of 3-1 for nine points – the same win-loss ratio and total points as Algeria and Rwanda. But they were declared the winners by set quotient – 10-4 ahead of Algeria who came second with a 9-4 quotient and Rwanda who came third with a quotient of 9-6.

This is Cameroon’s third qualification ticket to the World Championship after 1990 and 2010. They achieved their best result in 2010 when they finished 13th after getting through the first round.

G. G.