Nigeria books a seat at 2028 Olympic Games

Two years to the Olympic Games, Esther Mbah and Pamela Bawa are the pride of Nigerians, after securing the direct LA28 Olympic Games spot in beach volleyball.

by Marabou News Agency Staff

Nigeria’s women’s beach volleyball team made history by qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the United States of America (USA).

Esther Mbah and Pamela Bawa secured the first-ever Olympic spot for Nigeria after defeating Morocco 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) in the final of the African Beach Volleyball Championship in Alexandria, Egypt on Saturday, August 22.

It marks the first time a Nigerian beach volleyball team has qualified for the Olympics. Speaking on their return to Nigeria after the historic feat, captain Esther Mbah said the stakes were too high for them, after their 2024 Olympics Games bid was curtailed by Egypt.

“I think the last Olympic qualifiers Paris 2024, we lost to the Egyptian team and that alone, it made us go back to the drawing table and we had to reset and made up our minds to be resilient and going for this competition, because we want to make a name for ourselves and make our country proud and to qualify for LA 2028,” said Mbah.

Coach Kayode Ajilore said they were so determined to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games.

“As a matter of fact, when we got to Alexandra, what I told the players was that we are here for a revenge mission because the key teams, the countries that we met, especially at the quarter-final stages, were the team that have defeated us before,” the coach said.

“I told them that this time around, definitely it’s going to be a revenge mission that all of them, we are going to beat them and to God be the glory, it was much easier than expected.”

Musa Nimrod, president of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation believes after the qualification, work starts in earnest to prepare the team ahead of the Games.

“I have to look for world tours for them, they have to do about five world tours, yes, if not, if they don’t get that ranking very well, they will fall into a very terrible group, because if you don’t do that, forget it, even world championship, you still need world tours.”

“They have qualified for the world championship, they have qualified for the LA, that’s the pride of any player, but I want to tell you that we have to go for world tours and nothing less than five, so that is where the big work is going to be.”

Two years to the Olympic Games, Esther Mbah and Pamela Bawa are the pride of Nigerians, after overcoming near-misses for Nigeria at prior continental qualifiers, including Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 to secure the direct LA28 Olympic Games spot.

Marabou News Agency

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