NAIROBI, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt and Cameroon have been selected to stage the men's and women's volleyball Africa qualifiers for Olympic Games in January 2020.
Kenya, which had bid to stage the women's tournament, was voted out by Cameroon, which fronted 75,000 U.S. dollars to get the honors. Kenya had bid 65,000 dollars.
However, outgoing Kenya coach Paul Bitok said the team is strong enough to challenge for the single place for the continent to make the trip to Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
"Kenya lost out to Cameroon, but the team is strong, having won the Africa Games and beating Cameroon at the World Cup in Japan last month," said Bitok on Friday in Nairobi.
A total of eight teams are expected to contest the women's qualification including hosts Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Botswana, Rwanda, and Mauritius.
In the men's competition, the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) handed over the hosting rights to Egypt, which will stage the competition in Cairo in January.
CAVB Board of Administration made the decision on Friday. "This will be the first time for Egypt to organize Olympic qualifying tournament since CAVB headquarters was transferred to Cairo in 2001," said CAVB Press Officer Tarek El-Adwar.
Four teams had bid to stage the two competitions. Kenya and Cameroon for the women's and Egypt and Tunisia for men's.
"In August we invited all countries to bid to host the Olympic qualifiers tournaments with starting the bid at 50,000 U.S. dollars. Algeria sent a bid for 62,000 dollors, Egypt 65,000 and Tunisia 65,000 U.S. dollars. CAVB wrote to the three National Federations informing them of the new amount. Then they sent another offer Algeria at 65,000 U.S. dollars, Tunisia 66,000 dollars and Egypt bid 70,000 U.S. dollars," said Al-Adwar.
CAVB President Amr Elwani requested the board to give the same opportunity to the teams to table higher offers but none surfaced.
The Olympic qualification will be held in January 2020 with the winners to guarantee a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
