National Sports

Volleyball Zone VI championship cancelled

The Malawi national volleyball team has missed a chance for international action following cancellation of the Zone VI Championship that the country was supposed to stage from January 5-13.

The tournament was cancelled after only Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malawi, out of 15 countries, confirmed participation.

Malawi has not competed at international level for five years now.

Winners of the zonal tournament would have progressed to the continental competitions at the end of this month where participants will compete in four categories—boys, girls, junior men and junior women. The competitions will be held in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria.

Volleyball Association of Malawi (VAM) president Jappie Mhango confirmed the cancellation and described it as a setback in their attempt to give international exposure to local players.

But Mhango said all is not lost as the continental executive committee is set to meet next month in Zimbabwe to decide which countries will represent the region.

“Two top teams each from the men’s and women’s categories are supposed to take part in the continental competition and a decision on the way forward will be made during the meeting to be held in Zimbabwe,” said Mhango.

But his Zimbabwe counterpart Frederick Ndlovu said they have to revisit the situation since they now have to apply directly to the Confederation of African Volleyball to take part in the continental games, which are acting as the qualifiers for the World Youth Championships to be held later this year.

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