NAIROBI, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) has asked its members to bid to host the senior Africa Beach Cup, which will take place from March 27-31.
CAVB President Amr Elwani said the event will be used as the continental qualifiers for the 2019 FIVB beach volleyball World Championship.
In a statement, Elwani said the continent has a busy calendar includes the 2019 CAVB U21 Beach Cup and its qualifiers, the sub Zonal and Zonal phases for the CAVB Continental Cup, the first Beach Games in Cape Verde and the 2019 All Africa Games and its qualifiers.
"The African volleyball confederation announced the calendar for 2019 and invites bids to stage the competitions. The zonal qualifiers for the CAVB U21 Beach Cup will be held on Feb. 21-24, while finals will be organized from March 20-24," Elwani said.
The Sub-zonal phase of the Continental Cup, which will have 12 pools covering all zones, is scheduled to take place in April 2019.
"The senior CAVB Beach Cup will take place 27 to 31 March and will be qualifying to the FIVB World Championship," he said.
Kenya officials have not confirmed if they will be bidding to stage any of the competition, though Chairman Waithaka Kioni says they are keen to send a team to the Africa Games in Casablanca, Morocco and the inaugural African Beach Games in Came Verde to gain experience ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The inaugural African Beach Games are scheduled to take place in Sal City on the island nation of Cape Verde in the Mediterranean Sea from June 14-23.
The event is set to feature sports such as beach football, beach volleyball, 3X3 basketball and open-water swimming.
World volleyball governing body FIVB has already named China as the host of the FIVB Tokyo 2020 Olympic beach volleyball qualifying tournament, which provides another chance for teams, which fail at continental level to earn two quota places per gender for the Olympic Games.
It is the first time a tournament in this format has been organized and it will take place from Sept. 18-22.
"This important qualifier event attributed to China recognizes the country's strong commitment to the promotion of beach volleyball," said FIVB President Ary Graca in a statement.
Sixteen teams per gender will compete in China. One team per gender will represent China, while the other 15 will come from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings on July 16 following the 5-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Continental Cup qualifying tournaments are scheduled for June 2020 to ensure that all five continents have representatives in Tokyo games.
