NAIROBI, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's men's volleyball team vowed on Wednesday to secure the sole African slot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Waithaka Kioni, president of the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) told journalists in Nairobi that the team has beaten Cameroon thrice this year during international competitions and plans to beat them again.
"Kenya played against the best in the world and it was a learning process for the players who got a chance to expose themselves to the finest teams, especially at a time our game continues to grow," Kioni said when he received the team to this year's World Cup in Japan.
Kioni's remarks came in the wake of Kenya losing the rights to host the Olympic qualifier to Cameroon during a bidding process whose winner gets a home ground advantage.
"After the World Cup, our target is to reclaim the continental ticket to the Olympics where we last featured 15 years ago in Athens," Kioni said.
The qualifiers will be played in Cameroon in January 2020 to get the sole winner who will represent the continent during the quadrennial games.
During the bidding process, the volleyball rivalry between the two nations played out in the boardroom bidding process to determine who will host the event run away with the home-court advantage.
Kenya's first bid of five million shillings (50,000 U.S. dollars) was countered by the West African nation who bid 60,000 dollars. When Kenya raised her bid to 65,000 dollars, Cameroon countered with 70,000 dollars. Kenya's last bid was 81,000 dollars, but Cameroon outbid the East African nation after they placed 85,000 dollars and were awarded the rights to host the event, in a straight forward process where the highest bidder takes.
Charles Nyaberi, vice-chairman of KVF, said that the team is capable of winning matches anywhere. "We will start to plan early to compete in the event as our objective is to see that Kenya returns to the Olympics," he said.
