NAIROBI, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan setter Jane Wacu is hopeful her service will help her country register better performances at the World Volleyball Championships in Japan later this year.
Wacu, a former setter with Chamalieres (France), is back in Kenya to join the national team training camp in Nairobi from her current club, Seychelles champions Anse Royale (ARSU).
The World Championships, the flagship volleyball competition, will be held in six cities in Japan including Yokohama, Hamamatsu, Kobe, Nagoya, Osaka and Sapporo from Sept. 29 to Oct. 20.
Kenya, who qualified together with Cameroon to represent Africa at the championships, has been drawn in Pool D, which also has Serbia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Kazakhstan.
Host Japan was paired with the Netherlands, Argentina, Germany, Cameroon and Mexico in Pool A. Reigning Olympic champion China and Italy will take on Turkey, Bulgaria, Canada and Cuba in Pool B while in Pool C, reigning world champion USA will play Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Azerbaijan and Trinidad and Tobago.
Pressure will be on the 2015 FIVB World Cup winner, 2016 Olympic champion and 2017 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup winner China to cement their grip at the top. The Chinese women's team has won every major international volleyball title in each of the last three years and would love to continue that dominance in 2018.
The competition takes on even greater importance when you look at last season, when the Chinese had to settle for a disappointing fourth place at the final round of the last ever FIVB World Grand Prix on home soil in Nanjing.
This year's Women's World Championships has left China hungry to win gold again, after 32 years.
