NAIROBI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya, Egypt, Cameroon and Tunisia have been confirmed to represent Africa in this year's volleyball World Cup, which will be held in Japan in September.
Kenya and Cameroon will compete in the women's competition while Egypt and Tunisia will enter teams in the men's edition.
However, world volleyball governing body, FIVB says this year's competition will not be part of the Olympic qualification process.
Kenya Volleyball Federation vice chairman Charles Nyaberi says the team has resumed training one week after winning the Zone Five Africa championships in Kampala. Nyaberi stated that he hopes they will continue to polish their skills under Italian coach Shailen Ramdoo.
"We have a busy program and we need our best talent on show. Alongside the World Cup, we have to focus on the Olympic qualification," said Nyaberi on Monday in Nairobi.
The World Cup will feature, for each gender, hosts Japan, the reigning world champions, plus the top two teams from each continental confederation according to the FIVB World Rankings.
Kenya and Cameroon are the top ranked in women while Egypt and Tunisia lead the men's rankings.
The women's competition will run from September 14 to 29, followed by the men's event from October 1 to 15.
The 12 participating teams will be involved in a single round-robin competition over 11 match days, with one single ranking per gender. Three games will be played at the same venue for each match day.
The Women's World Cup will start with the group stage in Yokohama and Hamamatsu over five match days, before the teams travel to Sapporo and Toyama for three more matches. The competition will wrap up in Osaka.
Last time around, China claimed women's gold, followed by Serbia and the U.S. The U.S. dominated the men's competition, with Italy taking silver and Poland bronze.
Kenya will also face Italy, who finished second at the World Championships, the Netherlands and Belgium in the Intercontinental Olympic qualifying tournament that will be played in Italy from August 2 to 4.
Ramdoo will use the Olympic qualifiers and the Africa Games (Morocco) to gauge his players' progress before heading to Japan for the volleyball World Cup.
Ramdoo has called up youngster Gladys Ekaru to the 14 member women's volleyball squad that begins training in Nairobi for the July 5-15 African Nations Cup in Cairo, Egypt.
"Good response and progress from the players after our sessions hit the peak and the training is going on pretty well and we can only hope for the best going forward," said Ramdoo.
Ekaru, alongside experienced duo of Elizabeth Wanyama and Brackcides Agala and the much improved Joy Lusaneka were not part of the team that recently participated at the All Africa Games qualifiers in Uganda.
Jane Wacu who is away with club Anse Royale in Seychelles remains a doubt as she has not been included in the training camp squad.
