The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has assured the leadership of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) of maximum support in their quest to pick tickets for this year’s Olympic Games to be hosted in Paris, France.
NOC president, Habu Gumel, gave the assurance at the end of a week-long 2023 Open Beach Volleyball Star/Tour Final Phase which was held from 5th to 10th February at the National Beach Volleyball Arena, Jabi Lake, Abuja.
According to Gumel, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the main target for the volleyball federation is the Olympic ticket having missed the last two editions in Rio 2016 and Tokyo in 2020.
“Let me first congratulate the Nigeria Volleyball Federation under the leadership of Engineer Musa Nimrod for the excellent job they are doing. You have uplifted volleyball to greater heights in both beach and indoor not just in Nigeria alone, not just in Africa alone even you have qualified by attending so many world championships outside Africa. They are great achievements of the president. I congratulate you, you and your body are doing very well. I’m so happy, I’m so proud to associate myself with the board.
“To the players, I want you to make us proud in Ghana and be sure you are physically fit. We are not just going to Ghana to participate, we are aiming for gold. Let’s showcase our talent in Ghana and let them know that volleyball in Nigeria is stronger than many of these African countries.
“The All African Games is our own Olympics. Our main goal is Paris 2024. We have missed it twice and this time, we don’t want to miss it. I want to appeal to you to make us proud and make sure that we qualify.
“Let’s try and qualify at least for the first time to go to the Olympic Games in Paris. Let’s break that jinx, qualify even if it’s for the Beach so that we can be able to go to Paris to showcase our talents.
“Your president is looking after you very well, he is our leader, he’s the one in charge and he’s doing very well, we are proud of him. We will give him all the necessary support we can. The board and the technical people are also doing very well.
“I want to assure that we’ll continue to support you. The Ministry (of Sports Development) too is there waiting. They have already look at the numbers of day you will spend in camp and they will look after you,” the NOC boss said.
In his remarks, NVBF president, Musa Nimrod, charged the athletes to improve their performance towards podium finishing ahead of Paris 2024. He said it was the first time the beach volleyball is being test run in three Phase Tour.
“This is the first time in Africa that three phase Tour is being done. No any other Africa countries have done it and Nigeria have achieved it. We now have two set of tour, stars tour and open tour. The open tour is meant for new entrants and the stars tour is meant for premier league.
“I want to congratulate the players who had participated in all the tours and gave their best. We are not relenting in all our efforts to pick the tickets for Paris 2024, as camping is starting in two cities across the federation,” he said.
Sporting Tribune reports that that camp will open for the players on February 15 in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Badagry in Lagos State.