African Teams Bundled out of Volleyball Championship

Cameroon and Kenya were on Thursday bundled out of the ongoing FIVB Women’s World Championship in Japan.

Cameroun was beaten by Argentina 3-0 sets (22-25, 20-25, 12-25) in the final round of Group A matches in Yokohama.

Soon after Kenya suffered the same fate losing to the Dominican Republic in similar set scores of 25-5, 25-7, 25-15.

Speaking after the game, Cameroon’s coach Jean Rene Bekono admitted his charges lost to a far better opponent.

“Congratulations to Argentina. They were able to play their kind of volleyball, but for Cameroon, it was very disappointing. Not being able to advance to the second round is very disappointing, partly because we are here to represent Africa in general,” said Bekono.

“I can only talk about today’s match and not any generalities, but today our mentality was zero. Argentina had a very good mentality and mindset whereas Cameroon had no control in terms of mentality.”

For Kenya, their defense had trouble dealing with the power of the Dominicans and appeared listless at times. They struggled with reception throughout the match.

“We wanted to play well against the Dominican Republic but they destroyed our reception and were fast on the counterattack. I wish them success in the next round and I hope they go all the way to the final,” Kenya coach Japheth Munala told the FIVB website.

Both African teams wrote history in the first day of the tournament. Cameroon managed a come-from-behind victory over Mexico in four sets to register the first ever win for an African team in the history of the women’s World Championships.

Kenya doubled Africa’s joy with an even more emphatic, straight-set, victory over Kazakhstan in their pool.

The competition brought together 24 teams who have been spread across four pools of six teams each with the top four teams from each pool advancing to the second round.