Kenya women beach volleyball team secures Commonwealth Games ticket

Kenya will send the national women's beach volleyball team to the Commonwealth Games after receiving qualification through the Athlete Allocation System and team ranking.

The International Volleyball Federation and Commonwealth Sport, through a letter to the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) on Monday, confirmed that Kenya had qualified through the wild card path.

"In accordance with the published Beach Volleyball Athlete Allocation System (Version 4) for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the CGF and Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) are pleased to officially confirm your qualification ," read part of the Commonwealth Sport statement.

Kenya missed the ticket through the African qualifiers held last month in Ghana after finishing third behind winners Ghana and Mauritius, but had another option to go through after FIVB released the qualifying criteria for the Games last month.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) deputy president Charles Nyaberi welcomed the news saying despite failing to qualify directly, they had not lost hope after the international volleyball body announced another route to the Games due July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham.

"Beach volleyball has grown in Kenya and this is  another big opportunity for our team. We represented Africa last year in the Olympic Games and it was not going to be a good thing to miss out on the Commonwealth Games. The sport has made a splash in the country and it's arguably the fastest growing sport in the country," Nyaberi told Citizen Digital.

The Kenyans are ranked third in Africa and 110th in the world. Morocco who leads the ranking in the continent will not feature at the Games as they are not members of the Commonwealth.