By YVONNE SAKALA –
ZAMBIA’s medal winning team Nkwazi volleyball team has qualified for Cairo 2017 Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) Club Championship to be held in Egypt.
The Police outfit got an automatic qualification after coming third in the just ended Zone Six Club Championship in Namibia where the team managed a bronze medal.
With that, they punched the ticket for another crack at the Zone Six championship next year to be hosted by Zimbabwe.
Nkwazi put a splendid performance in the championship that was won by Botswana Defence Force VI who beat Zimbabwe University 3-1 in the final.
The team has a record of five games three wins and two losses, they lost to Naba of Zimbabwe in the first game then to Kutlwano of Botswana, they managed to come back in the competition beating Namibia Police and Red Skins of Lesotho before dispatching former champions Mafolofolo of Botswana in the quarters. They lost to eventual winners Botswana Defence Force BDF VI in the semi final.
And Zambia Volleyball Association (ZAVA) general secretary Charles Haambote congratulated the teams for representing the country well at the championship and minting a medal.
Haambote said winning a bronze medal at the championship was indeed a great pride for the nation after rough past of participating at international championships.
He said it was gratifying to reach the quarter finals in the ladies category and a semi-final for the men, saying the country was slowly but making strides in the region and that come next year, the teams will mint more medals at the event.
“ As ZAVA, we would like to congratulate the teams that represented the country at the Zone Six Club championship for putting up a good performance and bringing back home a medal, this is a pride of the nation after we have had a rough past in terms of international participation and we hope next year  we will get more medals.
“Reaching a quarter final stage in the women and a semi final in the men and minting a bronze medal is not a mini achievement, we are not where we used to be in the past, we are moving in the right direction and I can assure you Zambian volleyball will be a force reckon in the region like it used to be in the yester years,” Haambote said.
Haambote said the next year’s Zone Six games will be hosted by Zimbabwe and the association would take advantage and send more teams to compete and increase the chances of winning medals at the event.
“Now that the championship will be in Zimbabwe, it’s nearer here and we will take advantage of it and send more teams, our aim is to expose more teams in playing international championship and put the sport in the lime light,” he said.