Women’s national volleyball Coach Paul Bitok has said age, experience, and past record will not count in the selection of the team to the World Championship set for September in Poland and the Netherlands.
Malkia Strikers are in Brazil for a two-month High-Performance training camp and so far played four friendly matches winning two and losing two.
Coach Bitok however praised his team for the remarkable improvement after playing three test matches in a span of four days.
According to Bitok every player has equal chances to make the global show line-up irrespective of their accomplishments.
“Of course, it’s important to compete for positions based on performance and not whether one is a senior or junior. This is the time for every athlete to prove to us that she deserves a place on the team. Chances will be given equally and will purely be based on performance.”
“It is a clean slate for everyone. The juniors have to keep believing in themselves for their self-confidence. They have trained well and they should be able to apply the same on the field of play. There’s no shortcut for us to sail to the second round-it just calls for hard work and commitment.” He added.
A series of test matches have been lined up with the African Queens entering the most crucial stage of their preparations for the planetary assignment.
The tactician noted that 20-year-old left attacker Veronica Adhiambo has been phenomenal during the warm-up matches.
“Adhiambo has improved drastically in all the facets of play. She’s bold and her execution is inch-perfect and she is already justifying her selection. She is already an example to the young players,” he noted.
Malkia, who are in Pool ‘A’, will begin their campaign against the Netherlands on September 23. They then take on Belgium on September 25th before settling scores rivals Cameroon two days later.