The Nigerian duo of Eze Collins and Emmanuel Okeke have finished in third place at the recently concluded U21 Beach Volleyball Championships in Cairo.
The Nigerians defeated their Egyptian counterparts in the bronze medal match in front of partisan home support on Tuesday evening.
Nigeria had beaten DR Congo 2-1 (18-21, 24-22, 15-12) in their first outing at the tournament but they fell by a similar scoreline to hosts Egypt (26-24, 17-21, 15-10) in their second match. The team recovered from that loss to dispatch Morocco 2-0 (21-16, 22-15) in their third fixture and also record a victory over Botswana by the same 2-0 score.
Nigeria, however, came up short against Mozambique in a tense and exhilarating encounter in the semifinals which ended 2-1 (21-18, 20-22, 15-13) in favour of Mozambique.
Reacting to the result, the President of Nigeria Volleyball Federation, Engineer Musa Nimrod eulogised the team and pointed out that the Federation was well on the way to ensuring that Nigeria becomes a powerhouse in Beach Volleyball on the continent and globally.
“The intention of the Federation is to make sure Nigeria conquers the world in beach volleyball. With time, I believe Nigeria will be at par with countries like USA, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Canada among others.
“This is the time for beach volleyball to shine and we are not going to go backward, we are only going to get better,” he added.
